Sitting on a patent should have no reward

More news about ebay and their "Buy it Now" patent violation. The patent is idiotic. Basically, a patent on the idea of selling a product for a fixed price while it is in auction - which clearly shows our patent/copyright/property laws are seriously messed up. This is nothing unique or revolutionary, it's pretty common sense. At any time during an auction if you reach a desired amount you can cancel the auction and just sell it.

The problem is that this company, MercExchange, is a patent troll. It buys up "ideas", sits on them, and waits for some other company to use a similar idea and then it sues. It is a company based entirely on filing lawsuits for profit against other companies. They produce nothing, offer nothing, and do nothing. They are, in my opinion, leaches on the economy and anti-capitalistic mongers wasting time with frivolous lawsuits designed to earn them a buck for doing nothing at all.

Another example is the MS suit against Linux for hundreds of patent violations, most of which boil down to basic intuitive user interfaces. It's like if I patented a simple way of picking up a pencil, and sued anyone who picked up pencils that way without giving me money. Ridiculous.

Thanks, MercExchange, for being a filthy greedy leach and driving up eBay's fees with your garbage business model.