Billionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., filed suit Friday in federal court against 11 Internet search and e-commerce companies, including Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., alleging that they're using technology developed at his now-shuttered Palo Alto, Calif., laboratory, Interval Research Corp.
The suit was filed by Allen's company, Interval Licensing, in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington. Interval Licensing is represented by Susman Godfrey and Heim Payne & Chorush.
Susman Godfrey's legal team includes Houston partner Max Tribble Jr., Seattle partner Justin Nelson and Seattle associate Matthew Berry. Heim Payne's team includes named Houston partner Michael Heim and Houston associate Nathan Davis.
Interval Licensing holds patents of Interval Research, the former company founded by Allen and David Liddle in 1992. At its peak, Interval Research employed more than 100 scientists and engineers.
The suit lists alleged violations of four technology patents developed at Interval Research in the 1990s, which cover fundamental Web technologies. The suit does not estimate a damages amount.
"This lawsuit is necessary to protect our investment in innovation," a spokesperson for Allen said in a statement. "We are not asserting patents that other companies have filed, nor are we buying patents originally assigned to someone else. These are patents developed by and for Interval."
Others named in the suit include AOL Inc., eBay Inc., Netflix Inc., Office Depot Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Staples Inc., Yahoo Inc. and YouTube.
