Online Auction Industry In A State Of Limbo

Posted by michael on Sunday June 1, 2003 @06:32PM from the buy-limbo-now-for-$9.99 dept.

theodp writes "It seems the online auction industry is in a state of limbo after last week's ruling that eBay violated patents belonging to MercExchange. MercExchange said it will file an injunction against eBay to keep them from using the technology, eBay said it will file motions to overturn the verdict, and MercExchange is ultimately looking to sell its entire portfolio of auction-related patents. Names being bandied about as possible acquirers include Amazon, Yahoo and eBay itself. Whoever holds the patents may require other sites to pay them licensing royalties."

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Re:Non-obvious? by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · 2003-06-01 18:52 · Score: 5, Informative

The patents are not on holding an auction, but on the fixed-price Buy It Now feature
[opinion]which is even sillier[/opinion].
Re:You can't patent a business process by petecarlson · 2003-06-01 19:02 · Score: 5, Informative

You aren't allowed to patent a business process (i.e. "the assembly line")
Courts ruled you could in 1998. Personaly I think the courts in question were smoking crack.