Me thinx allen has gone down hill. One wonders when the US will give these software patents a rest. I'm not a US citizen, and I'm amazed how the US continues to hurt it's own economy be these patents. It's not like China gives a ******.
It may be frustrating at times, but the right of patent protection is so important that it is the oldest "right" in the US - and the only one explicitly mentioned in the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8). In the short time between independence and the ratification of the Constitution, twelve of the thirteen new states enacted patent protection laws, for a very good reason: to ensure progress.
The framers of the US Constitution, who lived under British law most of their lives, understood that the British system of protecting new technologies spurred economic growth. Abraham Lincoln was a patent attorney, and listed patent laws as one of the three greatest inventions in history.
Legally, a patent is not a right to manufacture, because the manufacturing of something might infringe on OTHER patents. A patent only assures the holder the right to bring an infringement suit to court. Samuel Morse, credited with inventing the telegraph, was hit with lawsuits 62 times by people claiming to have invented it first, and spent virtually all his profits fighting these lawsuits.
So, Paul Allen can sue, but it's probably too late; whatever he claims in the suit to have invented is "out there" now, and the burden is on him to prove his ideas were stolen. Other people get ideas too, especially while working on similar devices. Just like the British custom the US has naturally emulated, one has to actually DO something with them in order to have a valid "right" to them. It's the basis of capitalism, and crucial to Western civilization.
Allen's still a douche, though.