The dispute between eBay and MercExchange has been running since October 2001, and hinges on an auction site patent application that was filed a few months before eBay was launched in 1995.
Since 1995, Woolston has obtained four patents, has ten more pending, and has sued others for infringement, although the eBay case is his biggest by far.
The patent dispute relates to the "Buy it now" service on the eBay site, which deals with fixed price sales, and a facility to search other on-line auction houses. In May 2003, a jury decided that this service did infringe Woolston's patents, and ordered the on-line auction leader to pay $35 million in damages.
The case then went back to the trial judge, who had the option of increasing the damages awarded – up to three times the existing award – and issuing a permanent injunction against the company, preventing eBay from using the patented technology.
In the end he did neither, and in August last year reduced the award by $5.5 million, and refused to grant an injunction.
EBay appealed, and has now, according to the Associated Press, argued that the judge improperly instructed the jury in the original trial and that a new trial is therefore necessary.
The company has also asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to take another look at the MercExchange patents.