• March 17, 2005

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday issued a ruling in a patent infringement lawsuit that could result in an injunction forcing Internet auctioneer eBay to revamp its fixed-price "Buy It Now" feature--which accounts for an estimated 31 percent of the goods sold on eBay.

The company MercExchange sued eBay in 2001, claiming that "Buy It Now" relied on a patented business method. In 2003, a federal district court judge ruled that eBay had violated several MercExchange patents, but declined to ban eBay from continuing to use the methods at issue. The appeals court yesterday remanded the case back to the district court, which might issue an injunction. At the same time, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is re-examining the MercExchange patents' validity, according to a Reuters report.

-- Wendy Davis