• On TechRepublic: Why VISTA HATERS will love Windows 7
May 19, 2006 1:54 PM PDT

Dell wins spat over e-commerce patent

by Anne Broache

Dell Computer has scored a critical court victory over a company that holds a controversial patent claimed to cover global e-commerce itself.

A federal district court judge in Virginia concluded last week that parts of the patent, issued to a company called DE Technologies, were too "indefinite" and granted part of Dell's request to declare the patent invalid. In legal filings, the invention is described as a "transaction system for facilitating computer-to-computer commercial transactions by integrating certain functions to enable international purchases of goods over Internet."

DE Technologies, a small Virginia firm, was awarded the patent for use in what it calls its "Borderless Order Entry System" in 2002, five years after it originally filed its application. It accused Dell of infringing on the invention in 2004, according to earlier press accounts.

At the time, a BusinessWeek report predicted that a loss on Dell's part could pose a devastating financial blow to the computer maker, which was on pace to do about a third of its business via the Web during the year it was sued.

Nearly any other company that sells its wares via the Web could have found itself fending off infringement suits as well.

A Dell spokeswoman declined to comment further on the suit. Because the judge granted only a "partial summary judgment" in Dell's favor, the litigation is ongoing.

advertisement
Click here!
Recent posts from News Blog
Neil Young Archives Blu-ray: Rip off?
Acronis revises survey results about backup habits
Acronis miscalculates data on users' bad backup habits
Flickr co-founder presses beta button
Comcast, Sony open retail store
Cox to try coaxing the Internet into submission
Was InfoWorld's CTO of the Year award a year late?
VMWare VI4 renamed to vSphere
advertisement

Making sense of Windows 7 upgrades

faq The basics and the fine print on Microsoft's options for those eyeing the next operating system from Redmond.
• Full Windows 7 coverage

Road Trip 2009: Big Sky Country

CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman takes his car full of gadgets to the Rockies and the Great Plains in search of tech, science, nature, and more.
• America's Fortress: Cheyenne Mountain

About News Blog

Recent posts on technology, trends, and more.

Add this feed to your online news reader

advertisement
advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right