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Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sues Apple, Google and others for patent infringement

microsoft_2Time was that Silicon Valley companies accused Microsoft of corporate treachery. Now Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has turned the tables, filing a marquee-quality lawsuit Friday that accuses Google, Apple, Yahoo, eBay, Facebook, YouTube and Netflix of patent infringement.

Google, which the lawsuit suggests bit the hand that fed it, fired back with an accusation of its own.

“This lawsuit against some of America’s most innovative companies reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace,” the Mountain View search giant said in a statement. “Innovation — not litigation — is the way to bring to market the kinds of products and services that benefit millions of people around the world.”

The matter of who owns innovation is at the heart of the lawsuit filed by Interval Licensing, a Seattle company owned and controlled by Allen that owns the patents awarded to Interval Research, a Palo Alto company founded by Allen and Xerox PARC veteran David Liddle in 1992.

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