Microsoft carbon monoxide - laminitis Paul Allen has file a last - moment amendment to his patent of invention infringement lawsuit against Apple , Facebook , Google and others , according to media reports . The amended suit targets Google ’s Android mobile operating organisation in a move that could spell trouble for earpiece manufacturers and app developers .
Allen ’s companionship Interval Licensing filed the lawsuit in August , alleging infraction of four U.S. letters patent relate to search , multimedia and database management .
The suit targets Internet giant AOL , Apple , eBay , Facebook , Google and its subsidiary YouTube , Netflix and Yahoo , and office supplies companies Office Depot , Officemax and Staples .
A U.S. Federaljudge dismissed the initial lawsuitearlier this month because it was too vague , giving Allen until Dec. 28 to file away an amendment provide more details of his claim .
Allen ’s lawyers responded in a 35 - page text file charge late Tuesday . The amendment , obtain by theSeattle Timesand not yet listed in the court ’s electronic filing scheme , detail lineament of the defendants ’ Websites that are alleged to infringe on the patents .
One of the patents , “ browser app for Use in voyage a Body of Information , With Particular software to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data , ” describes a method acting for discover online subject matter bear on to an item of interestingness .
The ameliorate cause charge AOL of infringing the patent in its presentment of related news stories while Apple is accused of infringing the patent in its presentment of tie in content on its iTunes store . standardised items for sale on eBay , related photos on Facebook , news account on Google Finance and even Netflix motion picture recommendations also conflict , the papers claims .
Most bizarrely , spam filters offer by AOL ’s east - mail service and Google ’s Gmail are also accuse of infringement because their classification of messages as spam depends in part of a comparison with other e - mail message received , according to the filing .
Another letters patent asserted in the lawsuit , “ Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display equipment , ” concerns the planning of info in an unnoticeable mode . The amendment accuses AOL Instant Messenger , Apple ’s screen background widget , and Google ’s Android mobile OS of run afoul it .
That could be bad news for a whole host of other companies , according to Florian Mueller , a blogger focussing on patent move heart-to-heart source software .
“ If any of those infringement statement against Android is true , this can spelltrouble for Almighty of Android - based devices , and for Android program program developer , ” Mueller wrote .