<p>Interval said yesterday it filed the suit in a US District Court in Seattle against the companies. Others named in the suit are: Facebook Inc, eBay Inc, Yahoo Inc, Netflix Inc, Office Depot Inc, OfficeMax Inc, Staples Inc and Google-owned YouTube LLC.<br /><br />Interval owns patents from Interval Research, which was a technology research and development company that Allen started with David Liddle in the early '90s.Interval said that the patents it believes are being violated are key to how e-commerce and search companies work.<br /><br />"This lawsuit is necessary to protect our investment in innovation," Paul Allen's spokesman, David Postman, said in a statement.<br /><br />Most of the companies named as defendants did not immediately return requests for comment. AOL spokeswoman Tricia Primrose said the Internet company had no comment.<br />Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes called the suit "completely without merit."<br />Google said the suit "reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace."</p>
<p>Interval said yesterday it filed the suit in a US District Court in Seattle against the companies. Others named in the suit are: Facebook Inc, eBay Inc, Yahoo Inc, Netflix Inc, Office Depot Inc, OfficeMax Inc, Staples Inc and Google-owned YouTube LLC.<br /><br />Interval owns patents from Interval Research, which was a technology research and development company that Allen started with David Liddle in the early '90s.Interval said that the patents it believes are being violated are key to how e-commerce and search companies work.<br /><br />"This lawsuit is necessary to protect our investment in innovation," Paul Allen's spokesman, David Postman, said in a statement.<br /><br />Most of the companies named as defendants did not immediately return requests for comment. AOL spokeswoman Tricia Primrose said the Internet company had no comment.<br />Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes called the suit "completely without merit."<br />Google said the suit "reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace."</p>