Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

eBay in 'Buy It Now' Patent Dispute

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the buy-it-later dept.

smooth wombat writes "The Office of the Solicitor General of the United States has filed a brief with the Supreme Court, taking the side of MercExchange who is in a patent dispute with eBay over eBays Buy It Now feature. Two lower courts have already upheld MercExchange's patents including finding that eBay had willfully infringed on the Buy It Now patent. Later this month the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments. The Office of Solicitor General is arguing eBay should be barred from using Buy It Now due to the decision of two lower courts that upheld MercExchange's patents. eBay is arguing that infringements should not automatically result in injunctions and shutdowns."

6 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Business Method vs. Business Technology Patents by Gallenod · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can see patenting a cash register. That's technology someone had to develop and produce. But isn't claiming a patent on "buy it now" a bit like patenting the use of a cash register instead of the register itself?

    If you can "patent" a method of doing business, isn't the first company to ever use a cash register entitled to receive business method patent royalties from all the copycats who started using them later?

    --

    TLR

    A man no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company
    1. Re:Business Method vs. Business Technology Patents by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I don't know if the auction is capped at the fixed price though. I'd assume so.


      No. The auction is not capped at the BIN price. Once a bid has been placed (provided the reserve price, if there is a reserve has been met or exceeded), the Buy It Now option goes away, and the item goes to the regular auction format with no upper limits.

      I myself have been pleasantly surprised the few times I have had items end up going for higher than what the Buy It Now was. And in a few instances, I have been amused to discover that the winning bidder in those instances ended up being the one who initially bid and popped the Buy It Now, paying more in the end than what he would have paid had he just made the purchase with BIN.
      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
  2. Re:The Details by KarmaMB84 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The patent seems rather focused on e-commerce and on there being both an auction (best offer) and a "direct buy" (buy it now) price. Retail outlets online or otherwise generally aren't auctioning items so their price is just that: a price. Since there's no auction price or otherwise, then this "direct buy" price wouldn't infringe. The killer for eBay is that they actually negotiated with the patent holder; therefore, they knew about it and are infringing willfully.

  3. Re:The Details by terrymr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're free to offer any amount you like to buy something in a store, most store staff will look at you funny, but who hasn't tried to haggle for a free something when buying a high $ item.

    The price on the tag could be considered the "buy it now" price at which the store owner has already indicated they'd sell.

  4. Buy It Now and dealers are killing eBay by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While I know there are many on here who will say that these patents are bogus, eBay screwed up both by violating someones patent as well using the Buy It Now feature.

    The article clearly states that eBay was in negotations to license this patent but negotiations broke off. eBay then went ahead, knowing that someone else held the patent to this service, and instituted Buy It Now anyway.

    Further, Buy It Now is becoming the norm rather than the exception. When eBay started they were an online auction company. People put up stuff to sell and let the market determine the price.

    Now, Buy It Now is overtaking the auction feature and dealers are holding sway. For example, I'm looking to add to my camera equipment. When I do a search for my particular type of lenses I get 11 pages back. Of those pages at least half are Buy It Now from dealers.

    Do a search for lens accessories and 3/4 of the pages are from dealers. Camera cases? 90% of the listings are from dealers using Buy It Now.

    I was fortunate enough to pick up a lens last weekend. I took a look at the bid history and checked the last person to bid (2 seconds before the auction closed). Sure enough they were a dealer and everything the person had for sale on their site was Buy It Now.

    This is alot like flea markets nowadays. In the past the people selling stuff were like you and I. Now when you go there are dealers galore.

    I'm not against the market system, that's what eBay was originally founded on. However, by allowing people, particularly dealers, to set a specific price, defeats the whole purpose of an auction.

    Yeah, yeah, I know. If you don't like it, don't buy from the dealers. I don't. The point is that when dealers control the vast majority of the listings that will drive the price up for everyone else since there will be fewer true auction listings for people to choose from.

    Personally I can't wait to see Buy It Now be done away with.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  5. Easy way around this. by jocknerd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Change the "Buy it now" to "Buy it in 5 minutes"

    These patents are just so f'ing stupid.