Paul Allen's patent troll suit against Google, Apple, et al, stalled

The patent infringement lawsuit against AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube filed by Interval Licensing LLC has been dropped. Interval is widely associated with entrepreneur Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft, and served as chairman of Charter Communications until late 2009 when the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Interval sued the eleven tech companies last August, claiming violations of four patents for Web technology related to product search and user alerts.

The violations that Interval alleged, however, did not contain enough factual detail to provide a basis for the case, and on Friday, District court Judge Marsha Pechman dismissed the complaint.

"[The] Plaintiff has failed to identify the infringing products or devices with any specificity. The Court and Defendants are left to guess what devices infringe on the four patents," Friday's ruling said.

But this does not mean the case is over. Pechman has given Interval until December 28th to file an amended complaint, and representatives from the company have said the case will continue to be pursued.