eBay Target of $3.8-billion Patent Infringement Suit

The Globe and Mail is reporting that eBay is the target of a $3.8-billion law suit filed Tuesday in Delaware by XPRT Ventures LLC, who cited six patents that they felt eBay had infringed upon in the development of Paypal Pay Later and PayPal Buyer Credit.

In the complaint "XPRT said that when eBay on April 30, 2003 filed a patent application titled “Method and System to Automate Payment for a Commerce Transaction,” it failed to tell the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office it knew of XPRT’s own patent applications." XPRT says information was shared in confidence with eBay by the inventors on XPRT’s own patents.

"XPRT is seeking a minimum $3.8 billion in monetary damages, based on their estimated present value. It is also seeking treble damages resulting from eBay’s alleged “willful and malicious conduct,” punitive damages, and other remedies."

Canadian Taxman Goes After eBay Power Sellers

About two years ago the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) launched a probe into eBay Canada "Powersellers" to ensure that they were claiming all of the income that they earned. A PowerSeller receives various benefits from eBay Canada, there are varying levels and it takes about $3000 in annual sales to qualify. The probe focused on sales in 2004 and 2005 and involved about 10,000 people. The CRA now says that it is expanding it's investigation to include 2006 and 2007.

The CRA has been hampered by eBay's unwillingness to provide information, saying that the data is stored on eBay's servers in the US where CRA has no jurisdiction however last week the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed eBay's arguments.

"We're just alarmed by this," Andrew Sloss, eBay Canada's manager said in an interview yesterday. "I think everyone who values their privacy should find this alarming. This is a slippery slope. I mean, who will be the next people who will be the product of a government fishing expedition and have their privacy rights compromised?"

eBay Baby Returned To Parents

A German boy, taken from his parents by officials after the discovery of an eBay posting offering the child up for sale, has been returned to his home. The ad placed May 24th read: "Offering my nearly new baby for sale, as it has gotten too loud. It is a male baby, nearly 28 inches long and can be used either in a baby carrier or a stroller." the starting bid was 1 euro. Otto Gaschler, deputy chief of youth services in Unterallgau, told the AP that the posting was "like a game for them. They never thought that this stupid joke could have such an effect." Both parents are in their early twenties and clearly have a lot of growing up to do! Perhaps they should have been made to take a parenting class or do some volunteer time at a shelter prior to the return of their child. -- CNet New Blog.

French Courts Rule Against ebay

A french court has ruled that ebay must pay 40 million euros in restitution for knock off goods and unauthorized distribution of legitimate goods. LVMH, representing Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Guerlain, Kenzo and Givenchy was awarded the settlement that ebay says it will appeal. At issue was the sale of knock off Louis Vuitton handbags, Christian Dior clothing, and "illicit" Dior, Guerlain, Kenzo and Givenchy perfume that only specialist dealers were permitted to sell. LVMH spokesman Pierre Godet told French news agency AFP that the decision "protected brands by considering them an important part of French heritage". In ebay's defense, Vanessa Canzini, an eBay spokeswoman, said: "If counterfeits appear on our sites, we take them down swiftly, but today’s ruling is not about our fight against counterfeit.

"Today’s ruling is about an attempt by LVMH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers everyday.

"We will fight this ruling on their behalf; we will be seeking leave to appeal.”

If ebay can't sell knock offs, what's left?

BBC story here.

eBay To Open Up Code To Developers

"We are opening up the eBay site to help developers and sellers make more money, which is what this is all about," Max Mancini, eBay's senior director of Platform and Disruptive Innovation, said in an interview. Following the lead of Facebook with it's 24,000 applications developed outside of the company, eBay is hoping to inject some new life into online auctions and sales. "Rather than having eBay try to build every feature, we should open up the platform and integrate others' work," Mancini said. "We have realized that we need to allow sellers and developers to get together a little bit more easily." The company plans to begin testing the project, dubbed "Project Echo", later this year. More here at Canada.com.

Sensitive US Military Items Offered For Sale Online

A report by the US Government Accountability Office says that investigators were able to purchase a dozen prohibited military items on popular online selling sites eBay and Craigslist. Components for the retired F-14 fighter jet, night vision goggles that allow the user to identify U.S. troops at night, army combat uniforms were among the items purchased, and special "enhanced" body armor vests. "Do we have a serious theft problem, or do we not even know if we have the ability to know we have a serious theft problem?" asks Rep. Chris Shays. Craigslist says they rely on users to police the site but eBay representatives say "We created prohibited and restricted items policies and built tools using state-of-the-art technology to enforce those policies" The fact remains that items can be purchased. CNN has the story.

Twitter Account For Sale On eBay?

Andrew Baron, of Rocketboom fame, has posted his twitter account complete with 1400+ followers for sale on eBay! As I write this, the current bid is $465 US and the fall out has begun with a few comments added to the Twitter support forum calling into question whether or not this is a violation of the Terms of Service. According to that page "Twitter is here! 10 employees are listening and participating" so I encourage you to weigh in on the debate if you feel strongly one way or the other. I am not personally following Andrew and would promptly un-follow him if I where. I thought about following him when I read this, only as a means to follow the auction, but out of principle have decided not the encourage his actions by adding more followers to the account. I'll be watching though, if only to see how this affects the followers and primarily to see what Twitter's response will be.

Adobe Removes The Browser With Release Of AIR

EBay, Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Nickelodeon and Salesforce.com Inc. are all quick out of the gate creating downloadable, desktop versions of their websites using the latest technology released by Adobe Systems Inc. today. Adobe AIR "will allow any company with a Web site to inhabit a permanent spot on people's desktops." according to the Globe and Mail. Running on any operating system, applications developed for AIR are like widgets for the desktop, constantly updating as long as your PC is connected to the internet. The goal appears to be taking the browser out of the equation. “The browser was in the way and the widget, in some instances, was in the way,” says Adobe spokesman Adrian Ludwig.

EBay Lowering Listing Fees

EBay is hungry for more listings and is being challenged by other e-commerce sites, so in response has announced that listing fees will be dropping by as much as 50% on February 20th in the US. To counter this and offset the lost revenues, sellers will be paying higher commissions on items that are sold. The biggest change is for items selling for less than $25, the commission on these items will be raised to 8.75%. Numbers released by EBay last week indicate that fourth quarter listings rose by 4 percent and the number of people actively using the site rose just 2 percent from a year ago. Perhaps the economy has something to do with that, but then again you might expect that listings would be raising during hard economic times...

EBay press release.

Snowbank fetches Quebec man $3,550 on eBay

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Michel Levesque of Saint-Eustache, a town north of Montreal, has fetched $3,550 in an eBay auction for his "snowbank" that he set up as a joke after a pre-Christmas storm left the area buried in snow. Levesque does not know if the winning bidder, also from Quebec, will actually come through with the cash but has stated he will donate the money to a local youth organization if he gets paid. The Globe says "But since the pile was posted on Dec. 21, the prank snowballed."

eBay Exposes America's Pop Culture Obsessions in 2007

eBay has compiled a list of items that it says gauges where America's interest lays in 2007! With sales numbers to back it up, the online auction site is offering it's insight into where America's attention was over the past year. In the hard to get tech category eBay says:

"Despite the iPhone frenzy that swept the nation this year, Apple's iPod remained the number-one gadget on eBay, with 2,781,243 iPod-related items sold. There were 532,390 Nintendo Wii-related items sold, followed by 272,852 Sony PlayStation 3-related items and 158,132 Apple iPhone-related items. Additionally, 96,508 Guitar Hero-related items were sold, 63,851 Microsoft Xbox 360-related items were sold and 50,182 Halo 3-related items were sold."

Here's the complete list in eBay's press release.

Texas town sold on e-bay for $3.8 million

An unpopulated, one house, 13 acre town in Texas was recently auctioned via eBay with the winning bid coming from Italy. The town of Albert, about 60 miles north of San Antonio boasts a tavern, created from the frame of the old general store, a pavilion, an 85-year-old dance hall, a tractor shed, a three-bedroom house, plus peach and pecan orchards. The current owner is not jumping for joy yet as he has not verified that the $3.8 million bid is legitimate.

Is Google after Skype?

According to The Guardian Google is in talks with eBay to buy Skype! Well, that's what the rumors circulating London say... and according to OM Malik the Skype spokespeople are not commenting. I guess with all of the interest in telephony these days at Google it's not a big stretch of the imagination to speculate on this deal, and they do have the cash to make such a purchase happen. Can Google succeed where eBay has failed? Time may tell...

eBay gets Social

c|net's news.com points us to eBay's new social networking feature "Neighborhoods". The Neighborhoods site says "Neighborhoods are places for people like you who want to connect via their shared passions for products and topics." It's only just been launched but I find the top Neighborhoods a bit intriguing... as I post this here are the top 5:
1. Coffee lovers (105);
2. Jewelry (41);
3. Star Wars (27);
4. Apple iPhone (25); and
5. Foodies (24)

Coffee lovers? I really didn't expect that one... perhaps there still is room in the social networking space!