Microsoft co-founder and uber-billionaire Paul Allen owns a ton of assets, most of which can fit on the head of a pin (with room to spare). His assets are mostly patents on technologies acquired over the years.

Now he is suing Google, Apple, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube for patent infringement. The suit relates to patents having to do with online navigation and viewing technology. Forgetting for a moment whether the suit has merit, I’m curious how business owners feel about Allen’s strategy and the larger issue of patent trollers who acquire rights to ideas so they can later sue and settle with companies that may have a similar concept. Read more…

Tags: patent infringement

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If you were in hibernation during the last 24-hour news cycle, you may have missed the story about Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater, who was mad as hell and wasn’t gonna take it anymore. A passenger got up and opened the overhead bin before the plane had come to a complete stop and the seatbelt sign had been turned off. The attendant got up to get the passenger back in his seat, in the process getting clonked on the head by the passenger’s falling luggage. Many expletives ensued and the attendant did what anyone would have done. He grabbed a beer from the galley, got on the microphone and told the passengers what he thought of the dope who was out of his seat, unlocked the evacuation slide and took off feet first in one of the grandest exits ever made from a career. Read more...

Tags: airline business, Jet Blue

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Most entrepreneurs have survived a cliffhanger moment (or two): a period during which something happened that nearly put you out of business. Maybe it was when you had just a week’s operating cash (or less) in the bank before it was curtains. Or you had to coax people to work for free until the VC financing came through. Or you had a personal crisis that derailed you almost to the point of giving up your business. Entrepreneurship is about overcoming obstacles in extraordinary ways. Here are stories of entrepreneurs who peered over the abyss…but didn’t fall in.

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