14 DAY TRIAL // eBay has been sued for quite a hefty sum by a company claiming that six of its patents are being infringed upon by PayPal and other eBay subsidiaries. The patents have to do with online payments systems and XPRT Ventures, the US company in question, claims that eBay stole information about the patents and incorporated the technology into its own products. XPRT Ventures, is seeking at least $3.8 billion in damages and has filed a lawsuit in a Delaware court.
"This involves a trade secret theft, along with sheer patent infringement," Steven Moore, a partner at the law firm representing XPRT Ventures, told Reuters. "It is bad enough to take someone's technology, but it is a bit much to use it in your own patent application."
The claim is that eBay not only used the information shared with the company about the technology covered in the patents, it also filed its own patent application on similar technology. eBay started using the technology in 2002, the lawsuit claims, and filed for a patent in 2003 knowing that XPRT had already done the same.
XPRT claims that eBay also modified a confidentiality agreement between the two parties to make it look like it had been signed at a date later than its own patent application when in fact it had been signed earlier.
The suit mentions PayPal as well as other eBay websites and subsidiaries like BillMeLater, Shopping.com and StubHub. XPRT Ventures figures that, based on previous revenue figures released by eBay, it is entitled to at least $3.8 billion in damages for use of the technology. It is also asking for other damages for eBay’s alleged wrong-doing. eBay said it is reviewing the lawsuit but only provided the standard ‘the lawsuit is without merit and we intend to fight it vigorously’ response.