Patent Infringement Lawsuits Against Palm and eBay

A trial date has been set for a patent infringement claim against eBay. The suit was filed by MercExchange LLC in September 2001 and involves patents that deal with methods of creating and searching online marketplaces and auctions. These patents date back to the mid 1990's, approximately 5 months before the eBay website was launched. After a long history of motions for dismissal, the trial has been scheduled for April 22, 2003 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk. eBay contends that they have "meritorious defenses and will defend [themselves] vigorously". Palm Inc. is also facing a patent infringement claim. Peer-to-Peer Systems Inc. filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware alleging that the use of Palm handhelds and clone personal digital assistants to play multiple player games wirelessly and interactively on two or more such devices directly infringes their patent. Their patent relates to methods for playing interactive, multiple player computer games on ad hoc, wireless local area networks. The companies' attempts at settlement have failed. For a description of the MercExchange LLC patents, visit: http://www.mercexchange.com/invintprop.html For more details on the eBay patent infringement action, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?G28722324 For a copy of the Peer-to-Peer Systems LLC patents, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?N25712324 For more details on the Palm patent infringement action, visit: http://www.palminfocenter.com/print.asp?ID=5152 Summary by: Kiran Sah Concerned about your company's intellectual property rights? Contact Victor Butsky (vbutsky@dww.com) or Nicholas Whalen (nwhalen@dww.com) of DWW.