davidNeedham

Article 1

EBay Agrees to Settle `Buy It Now' Patent Lawsuit (Update4)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aoOIDXjUOi8A&refer=home

We have been talking a lot about the eBay v. MercExchange case going on over eBay's "Buy It Now" button. This case has been going on since 2001, and it has been going through a lot of debate and endless court dates. Finally, the case has been settled. EBay has agreed to license the patent from MercExchange for an undisclosed amount. "We thought it was best to put it behind us, so we wrapped it up," said MercExchange founder Tom Woolston. From the quote, it sounds like MercExchange lowered their licensing amount. I wouldn't imagine that being the case though since MercExchange seems to be coming out ahead in almost every encounter with eBay's attorneys. Up to this point, eBay had been sued for $30mil (later reduced to $25mil). They do not expect to make any less this year than they have already reported.

Article 2

Proposed patent law will cripple U.S. innovation

http://origin.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8389671?nclick_check=1

A bill known as the "Patent Reform Act" is currently being lobbied through congress by the "coalition of patent fairness". Some of the companies involved in this group are some of the biggest problems in the patent world today - including Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Cisco, and other companies which together have collected more than 250 anti-trust citations in the last decade. If this law is passed, it will severely hinder the US Patent system for every day inventors. It will make it more expensive to file for a patent, and they will receive less money for infringements on their patent. It will make it so that patent owners become stone-walled in cases they cannot possibly win against big corporations they can not possibly beat.

Both Israel and Germany are very concerned with this bill, but at the same time China and India are excited for this to pass. As the McLeod book discussed, India is very resistant to the US Patent system, but has recently been forced to get involved. They are looking forward to this bill not because it will help protect their indigenous people, but because it will allow them to acquire low-risk and low-cost US technology.

Article 3

Big patent law reform on the way?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2035

Just as in the last article, one of the considerations in this article involves the Patent Reform Act (though it's a minor role). The case of In re Bilski, due to be heard soon by a full panel of the Federal Circuit. The big part about this article, is that they have actually been discussing overturning the "State Street Decision" - that's the case that allowed the patenting of business processes. Reviewing that case will also almost certainly bring them to review software patent law as well.

We have been talking about the State Street Decision lately in class and the patenting of business processes. In fact last time in class Ed said that it would have been interesting to see how things would be different today if the business process law had not passed. I guess there's a chance now that we might actually find out!