According to the plaintiff in April of 2003 eBay (currently Bill Me Later, Shopping.com, StubHub and PayPal), has held out its familiarity with XPRT’s patent application when it submitted an application for its proposed technology (Method and System to Automate Payment for a Commerce Transaction)to the US Patent and Trademark Office.
"EBay's familiarity with the confidential information provided by the Inventors allowed eBay to recognize the advantages it would realize by acquiring, modifying and integrating PayPal's payment platform with eBay's own e-commerce payment platform. EBay also knew or should have known that such modification and combination would violate Inventors' patent application claims should they issue as patents," says XPRT.
"The inventors listed on XPRT's patents shared their patent applications and ideas on how to implement such concepts taught therein, with eBay in confidence. eBay incorporated such inventive concepts and ideas into its auction payment process during current California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's tenure as eBay's CEO. eBay's unauthorized incorporation was a misuse of inventors' confidential and proprietary material,” said Kelley Drye and Warren, the law firm representing XPRT.
XPRT Ventures LLC is claiming a minimum award of $3.8 billion in damages. The representatives of eBay told that they are reviewing the complaint however they believe that “it is without merit, and intend to defend ourselves vigorously.”
