Microsoft co-founder Allen sues Google, Apple, eight others

A company owned by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has slapped lawsuit against Google, Apple, Facebook and eight other American technology majors for patent infringement. Interval Licensing Llc has sued these entities for violating patents, most of which are related to a technology that

The company has alleged patent violations against Google, Apple, Facebook, AOL, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo! and YouTube.

The lawsuit, which alleges infringement of four patents, was filed with a Seattle Federal Court on Friday.

According to the complaint, companies such as Apple and AOL are liable for infringing a particular patent "by making, using, offering, providing, and encouraging customers to use products that display information in a way that occupies the peripheral attention of the user as claimed in the patent".