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You Can Still 'Buy It Now' At EBay
The eBay online auction site had its day in court and won -- at least in the short term. The Supreme Court this week ordered a lower court to reconsider a ruling that would have blocked eBay from using its "Buy It Now" feature.
The case pits eBay against MercExchange, a firm that claims ownership of the technology behind the feature. A district court jury had agreed that the eBay feature was a patent infringement and awarded MercExchange $35 million. An appeals court said an injunction also should have been granted to stop eBay from using the patented feature.
In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court justices wrote that the district court took too broad a view and the appeals court took too harsh a view.
Other tech-related news this week involved surveillance by the National Security Agency, the separate pushes for patent and telecommunications reform, and homeland security spending. Listen to the podcast for details.
Posted by Technology Daily on May 12, 2006 12:03 PM | Permalink
