Dell wins spat over e-commerce patent

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.