In recent years, the frequency of patent infringement claims
against some retailers has been steadily rising. This is certainly
not an industrywide trend, as the total number of patent cases
filed against the country's 50 largest retailers actually
declined slightly from 2006 (162 cases) to 2009 (only 150). On an
individual basis, however, some of the increases have been
significant—especially among on-line retailers.
Amazon.com saw only six patent cases in 2006 versus 20 in 2009,
while over the same period the number of cases for eBay jumped from
four to nine. This data is perhaps not surprising, given the steady
increase in on-line shopping over the same period of time.
On the other hand, some traditional "brick and mortar"
retail chains saw patent claims decline sharply over the past few
years. Wal-Mart had 15 patent cases filed against it 2006 versus
only nine in 2009; Target saw a similar drop, from 34 cases in 2006
to 16 in 2009. Even in this part of the retail
