eBay Looses Patent Claim

The US Court of Appeals said there was "substantial evidence" that eBay fixed price marketplace (the Buy It Now functions) violates a patent held by a Virginia man. Now the specifics of it just need to be sorted out in a lower court.

Boy, that would be a good patent to have, considering the Buy It Now feature generates a huge percentage of eBay's transactions. If the patent infringement is somehow upheld, I could see eBay paying $1B for the rights to the patent.