The US Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow in a patent case involving online auctioneer Ebay.
Lawyers for Ebay and small e-commerce company MercExchange will argue over whether Ebay should be barred from using its popular "Buy it Now" feature, which infringes on two MercExchange patents.
The case is being closely watched to see if the high court will scale back the right of patent holders to get an injunction barring infringers from using their technologies.
Software companies complain they can be held to ransom by owners of questionable patents, while pharmaceuticals oppose any weakening of patent rights, that they say would cool their investment in new medicines.
Patent experts said that, depending on how the high court rules, the case could have a profound impact on the way the courts treat intellectual property in the United States.
At issue in the current case is a decision by a federal court of appeals upholding an injunction imposed on Ebay at the request of MercExchange.
Ebay was found to have infringed on two e-commerce patents that MercExchange said were key to Ebay's "Buy it Now" feature, which handles fixed-price sales. But a US District Court refused to issue an injunction and awarded MercExchange a small amount of damages instead.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the decision, citing legal doctrine that gives patent holders the right to an injunction "absent exceptional circumstances".
Hopeful the Supreme Court will overturn the doctrine, some of the largest US software companies have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Ebay.
Ebay has argued that federal judges should have more discretion to deny an injunction and instead issue a monetary award to the patent holder.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling in the Ebay case in several months.