FORMER MICROSOFT BLOKE Paul Allen's patent lawsuit against just about every big information technology company has been tossed out of court by a US federal judge in Seattle.
US District Judge Marsha Pechman agreed with Google and AOL and dismissed the complaint for not being specific enough for the defendants to answer for in court. She did, however, dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning that Allen's lawyers can sharpen their crayons and try again before the court closes on December 28.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Allen plans to get his legal eagles to refile the case soon, calling the judge's order a "procedural issue" that won't halt the case.
Allen sued Google, Youtube, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Ebay, Netflix, OfficeMax and Staples. He claimed that they are all infringing four patents covering technology that were developed at Interval Research. That was a technology incubator Allen had financed but closed down ten years ago.
The lawsuit rests on patent claims to features that Interval Research alleges it invented and are used by many Internet e-commerce and search services.
Google and AOL filed replies to dismiss the complaint because it didn't specify which of the defendants' products and services allegedly infringe the Interval patents or how they did so, and the judge agreed that she could not see anything specific enough about Allen's entirely vague lawsuit to require them to bother defending against either.
No one expects Allen to go away. But he'll have to get his lawyers some sharper crayons now. µ
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