Analysts expect a U.S. Supreme Court decision on a patent suit filed by Merc Exchange to be rendered in the second quarter this year. I believe the case is an important test of the teeth that patent laws posses or rather lack.

Merc Exchange, a small e-commerce company sued eBay in 2001, claiming eBay's popular 'Buy it Now' feature violates two of its patents.

Analysts throughout the world are keeping a close eye on the case to see if the high court will scale back the rights of patent holders to get an injunction barring infringer's from using their technologies, or the patent holders will have to suffer in spite of having the patents under their belts.