Are Ebay guilty of using other peoples patents .......seems no one is safe if someone wants to use what you invented .
Full article..
A federal appeals court have told Ebay that the auction outfit had used the ideas of a Virginian man who claims it has been infringing on several of his patents.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said there was substantial evidence that eBay's fixed price online marketplace violates a patent held by MercExchange and its owner Thomas Woolston.
Although stopping short of issuing an injunction against Ebay, the court warned that freezing the online auction outfits fixed-price business may be warranted.
The court backed Woolston?s claim that San Jose-based eBay was infringing a broader patent involving online auctions.. However, that will have to be looked at during a trial in a lower court to be sorted out.
According to sources , the wigged ones chucked out Woolston?s patent involving an online comparison-shopping tool, which he claimed he invented.<>p> The next part of the story will be that MercExchange briefs will return to court to get an injunction ordering Ebay to suspend its "Buy it Now" feature. That allows buyers to get an item immediately instead of going through the auction process.
EBay will counter that it has since changed the technology behind its "Buy it Now" feature and that it is not infringing any Woolston?s patents any more.