To view the full article in its entirety, please visit eWeek: Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Sues Apple, Google, Others

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen decided to make technology litigation a little more interesting Aug. 27, filing patent-infringement suits against Apple, Google and nine other companies.

Allen's lawsuit claims violations of patents developed by his Interval Research Corp., a technology incubator. According to The Wall Street Journal, the other companies in Allen's crosshairs include AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Yahoo, YouTube and Staples.

"Paul thinks this is important, not just to him but to the researchers at Interval who created this technology," a spokesperson for Allen told the Journal Aug. 27. "We recognize that innovation has a value, and patents are a way to reflect that."

The four patents apparently cover technologies related to e-commerce and online browsing, including online-user alerts and ways for drawing users' attention to a nearby screen.

Microsoft is not named in the suit.