Re: INFO: eBay v. AuctionWatch?

On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Craig A. Summerhill <craig[_at_]cni.org> wrote:
>
> I am currently attending a meeting in Palo Alto, and I picked up this
> tidbit in today's San Francisco Chronicle. I thought it might be of
> interest to folks on this list. (Sorry, I don't have a URL -- not even
> sure the SFC is online. I've extracted a few relevant sentences to
> give you the flavor of the article.)
>
>
> eBay Warns Rival To Stop Bid Searches
> By Tom Stein
> Chronicle Staff Writer
>
> Online auction powerhouse eBay Inc. has verbally issued a cease
> and desist order against AuctionWatch.com, a Web site that provides
> a variety of services to people who participate in Internet auctions.
>
> At issue is AuctionWatch's newly launched search engine, called
> Universal Search, which scours up to 300 auction sites and returns
> the latest listings so that buyers and sellers don't have to visit
> each site individually to find the best prices.
>
> ...
>
> To prove it is serious, eBay officials yesterday contacted
> AuctionWatch President Rodrigo Sales and informed him that if he
> did not shut down the Universal Search service, eBay would block
> AuctionWatch from accessing its site.
>
> "We have let AuctionWatch know we will cut off their IP address
> if they move ahead with Universal Search," said eBay spokesman
> Kevin Pursglove. "We are exploring all technical and legal options."
>
> Pursglove claimed there are serious intellectual property issues
> at play. He stated that eBay has struggled long and hard to make
> its site a success and that AuctionWatch has no business profiting
> off "the sweat of eBay."
>
> The "sweat of the brow" statement was the one that eally caught my
> attention. I'm no lawyer, but I don't see where eBay has a legal
> leg to stand on -- especially considering the official eBay position
> is that they don't own the information posted on their site. (Presumably,
> IP rights are retained by the people authoring the items?).

Depends on what the engine actually does, but searching seems not to amount to a "substantial reproduction" any way you look at it. Can't see any "misleading and deceptive" elements there either so long as the info transcrition is accurate.

Think eBay is just narky that someone thought of this idea before they did.

CS

"Galvanising Ideas"

Colin Seeger, Consultant, Management of Intellectual Property. P.O Box 3227, Tamarama, Sydney, Australia 2026 Tel: (61) (02) 9365 1186, Fax (61) (02) 9365 1286 <seeger[_at_]ozemail.com.au> Received on Thu Oct 07 1999 - 21:24:44 GMT