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EBay Fined $29.5M in Patent Case

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the absolutely-ridiculous-patents dept.

pigreco314 writes "As reported by Washington Post and many others a federal judge Wednesday ordered online auction house eBay to pay $29.5 million to a Virginia inventor (former CIA engineer) who accused the company of stealing his ideas." This case has been going going on for awhile, but this looks to have some finality. Patenting "Buy it Now" is almost as stupid as One Click Shopping.

2 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Re:damn.. I hope.. by stratjakt · · Score: 0, Troll

    -0.03 is "dropped like mad" to you?

    eBay stole this guys intellectual property, just like Linus stole SCOs intellectual property. 30 million dollars in punitive damages sounds right to me

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  2. Re:he wanted more than Buy it Now. by Daniel+Quinlan · · Score: 0, Troll
    Seems like this fool was trying to go after EBay by filing patents that were VERY similar to what EBay had already been doing. Nevermind "Buy it Now", he wanted it all.

    Fool? The guy just won a $29.5 MILLION DOLLAR verdict. That's much better than most scams and it's completely legal, so to speak.