Microsoft Patent War

In what is a waterline for the rising tide of patent litigation, co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen is suing some of the world’s most popular Internet and technology companies for copyright infringement over products developed over a decade ago. Among the companies named in Mr. Allen’s suit are Google, Facebook, Ebay, Apple, Yahoo and AOL for using now-standard Internet conventions like pop-up stock quotes and suggestions for related articles and video. “Legal experts said increasingly large settlements for patent holders in recent years have created an incentive for patent owners to file infringement suits, rather than sell intellectual property, even when patents are years old.”