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eBay in 'Buy It Now' Patent Dispute
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."
Further proof that the US patent office needs closing down NOW.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
The point is, these large companies are "painting themselves into a corner" where to do business by a certain process or to manufacture anything at all will become impossible because of the encumberment of licensing the underlying technologies from other companies.
Suppose the hex bold was covered by patents discovered by several different people: the idea of idea of using a hex shape to allow someone to turn it, the idea of the specific type of threads, the idea of the slit in the head, maybe the galvanized coating, all these things patented by different companies wanting licensing fees. It's not as silly as you might think in today's manufacturing environment where a single product embodies vast amounts of technologies often owned by companies other than the designer and manufacturer of the actual product.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
THe moderation is so fscking bad around here that it is surely discouraging people from making a comment or even dropping by to read comments!