Google, Apple, others sued by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen is suing nearly a dozen major technology companies, including Google and Apple, alleging that they infringed on four Web technology patents held by his company Interval Licensing.

Interval said it filed the suit in a U.S. District Court in Seattle against the companies. Others named in the suit are: Facebook, eBay, Yahoo, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples and Google-owned YouTube. Interval owns patents from Interval Research, which was a technology research and development company that Allen started with David Liddle in the early 1990s. Interval said that the patents it believes are being violated are key to how e-commerce and search companies work. The patents described in the suit refer to technology used for things such as Web browsing and sending alerts over the Web.