In the trial of MercExchange v Ebay, the all-female jurors were warned to expect 3 weeks of tedious and technical testimony. MercExchange LLC sued eBay in September 2001 for patent infringement. MerchExchange said its founder Tom Woolston began applying for online-auction related patents in the spring of 1995, about five months before Pierre Omidyar launched the original eBay Web site.

US District Court Judge Jerome Friedman had rejected eBay's attempts to throw out the claims made in the disputed patents, but limited the trial to patents involving fixed-price selling and having an integrated payment processor. The trial opened in Norfolk, Virginia, last Thursday after jury selection quickly concluded the day before.

Experts were quoted as saying an eBay loss could represent $100 million. Online sellers posting in auction forums were concerned that a loss for eBay might mean higher fees.

MercExchange has already gotten other companies to license its auction patents, including ReturnBuy and AutoTrader, which ended its agreement with eBay and is set to launch a competing auction site for automobiles.

Tedious testimony or not, analysts and stockholders will be watching this case carefully.