The lengthy patent battle between e-commerce giant eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and a small firm that says it came up with the popular “Buy it Now” technology first will get a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday.

The focus of the hearing will be whether MercExchange should be granted an injunction barring eBay from using its “Buy it Now” feature, which lets buyers short-circuit the auction process by agreeing to pay the seller’s asking price before an auction ends.

Posted: 03|29|06 at 8:44 am. Filed under: Online Auctions.