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

Re:This is ridiculous

[Troed]

The European Parliament will vote on patents in EU in just a few weeks - having a case like this go public _before_ that happens will only help us from having equally relaxed restrictions on software patentability as seen in the US.

Will most surely have patents on software soon, yes, but that will probably exclude "business methods". Algorithms will be patentable, "one click shopping" and "buy it now" will not.

Re:Is this why...

[cmason32]

I'm so tired of this "let's blame the lawyers" crap. Remember that it's the actual parties who file the lawsuits; lawyers are merely advocates for their clients. And, unless it's a bench trial, it's the general public that makes the decisions regarding verdicts and damage awards.

Whether you think society is too litigious is your opinion. But, to blame that on "lawyers" and not all the assholes who file the frivilous suits is not "insightful" at all.

Nothing about auctions according to the article...

[evilviper]

Did anyone here read the stinkin' story??? 9 post at +3 or better so far, and all obviously only read the summary...

Pay close attention to this (block)quote:

a jury ruled that eBay had violated patents belonging to MercExchange, which said it will file an injunction against eBay to keep them from using the fixed price technology MercExchange had patented in 1995.

That's right... According to the story, the only thing eBay can't do, is the "Buy it now" thing. Auctions go on as usual.

The second article says the same thing, approximately:

US District Court Judge Jerome Friedman had rejected eBay's attempts to throw out the claims made in the disputed patents, but limited the trial to patents involving fixed-price selling and having an integrated payment processor.

Last time I used eBay, there was no "integrated payment processor", and "fixed-price selling" was a new feature... In other words, they were doing well before those features, so I imagine they could do without them if things don't go their way.

I hate patents, but I hate sensationalist /. stories as well.