Judge: eBay can’t be sued over seller accused of patent infringement
eBay headquarters on January 22, 2014 in San Jose, California. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
It's game over for an Alabama man who claims his patent on "Carpenter Bee Traps" is being infringed by competing products on eBay.
Robert Blazer filed his lawsuit in 2015, saying that his US Patent No. 8,375,624 was being infringed by a variety of products being sold on eBay. Blazer believed the online sales platform should have to pay him damages for infringing his patent. A patent can be infringed when someone sells or "offers to sell" a patented invention.
At first, Blazer went through eBay's official channels for reporting infringement, filing a "Notice of Claimed Infringement," or NOCI. At that point, his patent hadn't even been issued yet and was still a pending application, so eBay told him to get back in touch if his patent was granted.
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