Patent Office Takes Another Look at MercExchange Patent

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued an initial ruling that could invalidate a small Virginia business' patent that a federal appeals court ruled eBay Inc. had violated, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on March 16 that the e-commerce powerhouse's fixed-price auctions and some of its online payment methods violate a patent obtained by Great Falls, Va.-based MercExchange Inc., which sued eBay in September 2001.