“The allegations in the complaint are spartan,” ruled U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman.
Mr. Allen filed the lawsuit in August alleging that Apple, Google, Facebook, Office Depot, OfficeMax, staples, Yahoo, YouTube, Netflix and eBay were infringing on patents he owns that cover “the ways that leading e-commerce and search companies operate today.” The lawsuit was filed by Mr. Allen on behalf of his now defunct Interval Research Corporation.
The patents named in the lawsuit cover “a browser for use in navigating a body of information, with particular application to browsing information represented by audiovisual data,” an “attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a display device,” and a system for “alerting users to items of current interest.”
Despite Judge Marshall’s ruling, Mr. Allen’s case isn’t necessarily dead in the water. Mr. Allen’s legal team has until December 28 revise the complaint.
Mr. Allen is remaining positive despite the setback, too. “The case is staying on track,” commented his spokesman David Postman.