March 28, 2006

The intricacies of patent law achieved unprecedented notoriety last winter, with NTP’s infringement suit against RIM, the maker of the near-ubiquitous Blackberry. RIM settled for $612 million. Now online auction house eBay has come under the gun. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court will hear eBay v. MercExchange. MercExchange, a small online electronics merchant, claims that one of eBay’s services infringes on a patent they own. Nicolas Varchaver, in Fortune, quotes GE intellectual property honcho Todd Dickinson: "You could even say it's the most important commercial law case before the Supreme Court so far this century."