News: eBay Heads to Court
November 30th, 2005 by Laurie BarakSource: Xbiz
eBay is headed to court - the U.S. Supreme Court, that is.
The online shopping giant’s case stems from an initial 2003 ruling from MercExchange, who accused eBay of infringing on its technology. MercExchange builds patented systems for use in online auctions.
“Whichever way the Supreme Court rules on this precedent, eBay will owe MercExchange a lot of money for its intentional infringement,” Scott Robertson, a MercExchange attorney, told Forbes.com on Monday. “eBay has abandoned its argument that it was not an intentional infringer and we think that the precedent will stand, unless it involves cases of public interest. And selling Pez dispensers via the Internet is not a matter of public interest.”
eBay faces extended litigation from the initial MercExchange trial. Nearly all of its auction technologies may be called into question, with potential damages and penalties of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sounds to me like it’s a case of “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Unfortunately, in this case, MercExchange isn’t flattered and they’re trying to take eBay to the cleaners for it.
Blogger’s note: I have never been to xbiz.com before and was surprised to find many adult-oriented ads on the site. As they say on TV: “For mature audiences only. Viewer discretion is advised.”
