Trial is scheduled for next month in a complicated patent infringement lawsuit filed against eBay, according to the auction giant's annual 10-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the stakes are high. eBay says in its filing that "if the plaintiff were to prevail on any of its claims, we might be forced to pay significant damages and licensing fees, modify our business practices or even be enjoined from conducting a significant part of our U.S. business." The suit was filed by Great Falls, Va.-based MercExchange LLC in September, 2001, but the patents involved date back to the mid 1990s, when MercExchange founder Tom Woolston applied for patents covering methods of creating and searching online marketplaces and auctions. That was about five months before eBay founder Pierre Omidyar launched the eBay Web site. There's a complex history of motions for dismissal in the case, but the upshot, according to the 10-K document, is that claims regarding two patents are scheduled for trial April 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk. eBay's Half.com fixed-price subsidiary is also a defendant in the case. Descriptions of some of MercExchange's patents. [Full story: Trial Date Nears in eBay Patent Case - Ecommerce Guide]
Online clothing sales experienced a 6 percent increase during the 2002 holiday shopping season to 35 percent, according to data from Retail Forward, registering a 13-point jump from the 2000 holiday season. This two-year surge is second only to the online purchases of DVDs (8 percent in 2000 rising to 23 percent in 2002). But with The NPD Group, Inc. reporting that 76 percent of consumers are "being careful" about spending on discretionary products and services, online clothing sales could suffer through the second quarter of 2003, but big-ticket items are likely to be hit harder. According to the responses of more that 2,500 individuals in early March 2003, 41 percent plan to spend less than usual in March, April and May, 14 percent are planning to spend more than usual, and 45 percent plan to spend about the same as usual. Offline clothing retailers have also fared well, with big revenue increases noted by BIGResearch in comparisons from March 2002 to March 2003. BIGResearch also found that apparel bargain-hunters were more prevalent this year than in 2003. Nearly one-quarter (23.5 percent) of consumers only bought clothing items that were on sale — compared to 15.7 percent in March 2002. [Full story: Apparel Sales Apparent Online - CyberAtlas]
Google offers expert search tips to help you make better use of Google and find what you're searching for. For most Google searches, simply typing what you want to find does the job. If you want to refine your search, however, these suggestions from Google's quality team may help. [Web page: Building a better query - Google]
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