Paul Allen's Lawsuit Dismissed (AAPL, GOOG)

A patent lawsuit brought against a number of prominent tech companies by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman for being to vague. She said that the allegations in the suit were "spartan." The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Mr. Allen has until December 28 to refile the lawsuit. According to attorneys, they will refile by the deadline and the court's decision was based on "procedural issues." Among the companies that were named are Apple AAPL, Google GOOG, Facebook, Yahoo YHOO, eBay EBAY, Netflix NFLX, Office Depot ODP, and Staples SPLS. Allen accused these companies of violating patents that his company, Interval Research, had received. The company is now out of business. In a press release issued by Allen when the lawsuit was first filed, the patents were described as covering "fundamental web technologies first developed at Interval Research in the 1990s, which the company believes are being infringed by major e-commerce and web search companies."