Comments on: eBay Takes a $30 Million Hit Over Buy It Now Patent

By: Ding-dong, the patent witch is dead | The GITS Blog

Ding-dong, the patent witch is dead | The GITS Blog — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:16:01 +0000

[...] who have to worry about getting sued by some company with deep pockets because they’ve patented a “buy now” button, or page scrolling in a document, or even [...]

By: evan

evan — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:02:09 +0000

OK, whether you believe patents are good or bad, it’s important to note that the post is misleading about the Supreme Court’s previous holding in this case.

The default rule used to be that injunctions were all but required; the Court’s opinion firmly rejected that point of view, holding that patent cases required the same traditional balancing test before issuing an injunction that applies in all other types of cases. Essentially it asks whether damages are an appropriate remedy for the harm suffered by the plaintiff. In patent cases, it seems that they often will be, because rarely if ever will an inventor not be willing to license their invention for any price.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:29:20 +0000

Pretty stupid patent.
Change it to “Quick Buy!” and tell patents where to go.

By: doug

doug — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:31:49 +0000

What a ridiculous patent. Our patent laws desperately need to be refined!

By: Did Anyone Read the Patent?

Did Anyone Read the Patent? — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:14:41 +0000

Didn’t think so. Certainly not a ” Software patent”. I hate ignorance. Patents are important and have been instrumental in the US businesses forever. Concepts don’t just happen, they have to be conceived by people looking at a problem.

Who cares if eBay has to pay? They’ve been raping consumers all over the place for a very long time. This is a corporate entity that has lost its creative flair and fails to continue innovation.

They are no longer disrupting, but disruptable

By: matt

matt — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:01:05 +0000

Oh come on! $30m for a little button that says: I want to buy this now for an amount set by the seller.. Patent law needs reform.

By: Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:23:09 +0000

Got off cheap!
I usually pay this amount just for lawyers!

http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:13:42 +0000

This is ridiculous. A “Buy Now” button?! eBay should crush them in court, so these things will never happen again. Imagine someone taking you to court because they invented the “About Us” button. C’mon…give me a break! Like someone above said: now, every e-commerce website will be sued?! Lol.

By: Sellmyinventory.com

Sellmyinventory.com — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:43:14 +0000

I would imagine Meg Whitman is going to have to take this settlement out of her change purse. This is just a minor annoyance to Ebay’s coffers.

JMHO.

By: Pepe

Pepe — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:28:46 +0000

It is incredible that could happen in America. It is totally crazy the kind of patents you can put on things. I could understand a patent on something very difficult to imagine and very expensive to develop.

Patents should be protected only by the amount of development you save if you copy the idea.

For instance, the “original” company should take something like 10 bucks for the button idea.

By: Austin Storm

Austin Storm — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:23:13 +0000

US PATENT LAW RUN AMUCK!

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:15:29 +0000

The US patent system is sick joke. Who’s the clown who issued this patent? Who’s this so called judge? Patents were originally meant for inventing new things, scientific developments and such. Buy Now button? Give me a break!!! Ebay should appeal and I hope they succeed and teach another troll a lesson.

Patent system contributes its share of b/s to the already dysfunctional legal system exploited by insurance fraud, malpractice lawsuits, and Joe Shmoe’s suing microwave makers for no warning them about risks of drying their cats in microwaves. You can’t make this stuff up.

Go Ebay. Beat them in court.

By: Snyggast

Snyggast — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:50:23 +0000

I will patent submit, post, and search buttons on websites in all languages.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:08:32 +0000

so would this mean that some company in the 90s patented the “Buy” button and now every single e-commerce site can be sued for it?

By: Antje Wilsch

Antje Wilsch — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:16:13 +0000

@Dave M, me too. Even worse are business process patents, which this actually seems more of to me.

By: PM

PM — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:05:22 +0000

Sometimes software patents indeed are nothing short of a bad joke. Patenting a feature that allows you to buy something immediately instead of after the auction?

Is this right? That’s what they are going to court for? How on earth can you patent that? Is it a specific business model? If so, every ebusiness is liable for paying patent licensing fees because you can “buy now”.

By: Fake Tom Shane

Fake Tom Shane — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:58:07 +0000

MercExchange is nothing but a shadow company for b.s. patents. eBay is going to continue to fight this purely out of principle, and good for them.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:49:05 +0000

Bottom line eBay knows that they HAVE LOST. But, let’s do the equation here.
1) The appeal takes 12 months and eBay loses
2) Lawyer fees are minimal probably $50,000 for eBay during the 12 month appeal.
3) Cash on eBay’s balance sheet is earning 5% in a institutional money market during these 12 months.

$30M x 5% interest = $1.5M earned interest minus $50K lawyer fees

= net gain of $1,450,000

as a result eBay pays $28.55M instead of $30M and with an outside chance that this will be overturned.

That’s good business…..remember when the Exxon Valdez settled for a few billion dollars. I think after appeals it was something like 9 years later. How much did Exxon really pay?

By: Larrikin

Larrikin — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:48:56 +0000

Duncan, you are the most sensitive Australian ever. Thanks for blocking my posts.

By: Kelli

Kelli — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:38:41 +0000

$30 million may not seem like a lot of money to us for a company like eBay but they certainly don’t want to have to pay it. eBay isn’t the darling that they used to be and while their market cap is still around $45b, what strategies do they have for growth? How do they evolve the business? The acquisition of Skype was a bust and this is news they didn’t want. They need to smarten up.

By: NIkita

NIkita — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:36:09 +0000

Ugh… This is ridiculous. How can there be a patent on a button that is intuitive? Can someone clarify? Maybe I missed something?

By: Sebastian W.

Sebastian W. — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:33:27 +0000

If only ebay had called it “buy instantly”
software patents are a bad joke.

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:17:34 +0000

I hate patents…especially on software.

By: Don Wilson

Don Wilson — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:14:02 +0000

Darn, they just made that from eBay listing fees in the past week. Somehow I think eBay will get over it.

By: Neil Kelty

Neil Kelty — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:01:54 +0000

Boy I’d better patent the air and sue the whole world!!!!!!!!!!

Now back to reality, why wouldn’t they appeal? It’s $30 million dollars. I don’t care who you are, you appeal.