It seems the online auction industry is in a state of limbo. Last week, a jury ruled that eBay had violated patents belonging to MercExchange, which said it will file an injunction against eBay to keep them from using the fixed price technology MercExchange had patented in 1995. eBay said it will file motions to overturn the verdict. The judge in the case will rule on these motions in about 6 weeks.
Ultimately, MercExchange is looking to sell its entire portfolio of auction-related patents. Names being bandied about as possible acquirers include Amazon, Yahoo and eBay itself. (I wonder what happened to AOL, which is planning its own auction marketplace?) Whoever holds the patents may require other sites to pay them licensing royalties.
While the outcome of this patent infringement lawsuit could have far-reaching effects on many auction businesses, the world at large (and Wall Street) seems to be taking a wait-and-see attitude, with no signs of panic. The lawsuit got lots of media attention, including our Newsflash coverage:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/pages/abn/y03/m05/i28/s02
Meanwhile, ePier announced a feature late last week that allows sellers to display their phone number on auction listings. The feature is optional and is intended to make buyers feel safer. With the increased level of fraud on auction sites, it seems to be a timely move. Some sellers won't like the idea of posting their phone number, and some will think it's a way of increasing bids by allowing potential buyers to contact them. Since the feature is optional, it's the seller's decision whether to use it or not.
ePier decided that the potential upside - increasing safety and increasing the number of sellers on the site - outweighs the potential downside of reduced Final Value Fees through gray market transactions.
If you want to see what the feature looks like, go to ePier http://www.epier.com and click on "Search" and "By Seller." Type in msdoll99 and click on one of the items. You'll see a small flashing green phone icon next to the seller's telephone number.
I'm happy to announce we upgraded the AuctionBytes Web site and discussion forums last week. Our site has become so busy we needed to move to a new, dedicated server. Check out the site, it's much zippier. By the way, there are over 2,000 registered users in the AuctionBytes forums, http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/index.php with many productive and friendly discussions ongoing. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to participate and help out others.
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
