Online Auction Industry In A State Of Limbo

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."

Comments

Ya think?

[rjamestaylor]

• Whoever holds the patents may require other sites to pay them licensing royalties.

Going out on a limb with that one, huh? Yeah, I can't think of many reasons for a company to buy the patent portfolio of a company whose patents on a key Internet technology were just upheld in court. Besides pulling a SCO, that is.

Can we just refer to this kind of manuover as "pulling a SCO" from now on?

This is ridiculous

[rsilvergun]

How the heck do you patent doing something that's been done for generations just because it's on the internet. It'd be like patenting giving stock quotes over the phone. It really ticks me off to see all these companies with nothing real to offer humanity getting patents for using other peoples technology. If I were ebay, I'd try and kill this patent based on the shear obviousness of it.

Still, I can't help but wonder if the reason America is so patent crazy lately is to get a leg up on the rest of the world. I'm pretty sure large parts of Europe will be tricked/cajoled/forced into honoring this crap eventually, and I know Iraq will (whether they want to or not).

Re:Is this why...

[PurpleFloyd]

Lawyers don't deserve all the blame, but they do deserve a significant portion. Many corporations (especially large ones) will employ a legal team that makes recommendations to the upper management regarding legal matters like lawsuits. Thus, a lawyer may recommend a frivolous lawsuit to the higher-ups in a company, who don't understand the situation and don't care very much. They just sign what their legal team puts in front of them and let the lawyers run free. After all, if the law allows them to file these lawsuits, then it must be okay, right?

The job of these lawyers is to find and exploit legal loopholes to benefit the corporation they work for. A lot of them are scumballs. That's not to say that all lawyers are bad; that's an attitude I don't understand. There are many lawyers committed to things like bringing criminals to justice or fighting for the poor. They just aren't the ones driving brand-new Porsches. Still, many lawyers are willing to take a pay cut to work in the DA's office, because they simply can't stand the "do-it-for-money" attitude of many big law firms and corporate legal departments. If people were willing to look at the entire legal picture, they would find that it's like many others: a few high-profile assholes, and many people who toil away for good causes in relative obscurity.

By the way, I'm not a lawyer, but I do know several. I do not associate with assholes. End of story.