A company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed a complaint in a US court against 11 companies, accusing them of patent infringement.

The Interval Licensing LLC Friday filed the complaint in the district court in Seattle against Apple, Google, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube.

The patents in the lawsuit cover fundamental web technologies first developed at Interval Research, a now defunct business founded by Allen and David Liddle in 1992, Xinhua reported citing a Interval Licensing statement.

"Interval Research was an early, ground-breaking contributor to the development of the internet economy," David Postman, a spokesman for Paul Allen, said.

"This lawsuit is necessary to protect our investment in innovation," Postman said.