The "Buy it now" patent, owned by MercExchange - Explain?

I've been reading alot about this case recently - and whilst being far from stupid, I cant quite grasp the ins and outs.

I know IBM own a patent that covers e-commerce to a fair degree (eg - use of a website to display and sell goods using a database to store information etc - and we're all screwed if they enforce it)..

But, ebay have been up against MercExchange since 2003 for using the Buy It Now feature on eBay.

This is the patent:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-parse...

I'd like to know what the difference is please, between IBM's patent and MercExchange's Patent - and a little more clarification on what MercExchange's patent consists of, kinda like how i summed up IBM's ecommerce patent above.

Answers:
Sorry, dunno.


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