AT&T sues eBay over PayPal
 

SAN JOSE, Calif. ? AT&T reached out and smacked eBay with a patent-infringement lawsuit yesterday, claiming the online auction company has been using a payment system that the telecommunications giant developed more than a decade ago.

The case, filed in federal court in Delaware, comes on the heels of an August verdict in which a Virginia judge ordered eBay to pay $29.5 million to an inventor who accused the company of stealing his ideas for fixed-price-sales formats. eBay is appealing that case.

AT&T says three senior engineers working for the phone company filed for a patent in 1991 for exactly such a process, which they called "Mediation of Transactions by a Communication System." The patent was granted in 1994, AT&T said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...attebay21.html

Was posted yesterday I think.

I figured eBay would have had to pay more than 29.5 million, for some reason...

lol

it took them from 1994 until now to file a lawsuit?

if they wouldve filed it a long time ago before ebay was a big huge company like it is now, they wouldnt have received as much money

Will be very interesting to watch this unfold.

I guess everyone is getting festive this season. Lawyers should have good year.