What is obvious, wrought with prior art, and worth 2.5 million dollars?

One less thing.

Soverain, a company who sues other companies for patent infringement as a profession (because according to Ars Technica, they do not make any sales), has been taking a cut of many online retailers for a decade. Victoria's Secret was mandated to pay just over $9 million in damages while Avon was ordered to pay just under $9 million and both must pay just over a percent in royalties. Newegg also lost their suit, and was ordered to pay $2.5M in damages. They appealed, and won.

Soverain? You took it from a geek. Hard.

Ars Technica did their characteristic investigative reporting and compiled the wake of legal problems caused by Soverain. Ultimately it was prior art from CompuServe which proved to a panel of three judges exactly how obvious the patents actually are during Newegg's appeals hearing.

The outcome of Newegg's appeal also wiped out the other rulings. Anything that makes scantily clad Victoria's Secret models happy must be a good thing, right?