The Wall Street Journal writes... ---------- "Patent litigation in general is on the rise and Mr. Allen's lawsuit comes amid high-profile successes of firms such as NTP Inc. and Acacia Research Corp., which enforce patents without making products. Courts have tried to rein in patent litigation with mixed results, and Congress has yet to act on legislation that would do the same." "Named in Mr. Allen's suit, along with Apple and Google, are AOL Inc., eBay Inc., Facebook Inc., Netflix Inc., Office Depot Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Staples Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Google's YouTube subsidiary. Notably missing from the defendants' list are Microsoft, in which Mr. Allen remains a major investor, and Amazon.com Inc., which is based in Mr. Allen's hometown of Seattle. Mr. Postman declined to comment on the selection of defendants." ---------- Here's more from Wired.com. Thanks to Norsktroll for posting. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter