E-commerce, or the practice of ordering merchandise over the Internet, arose in the late 1990s with Amazon and Barnes & Noble both emerging as early leaders in the marketplace.

[1] The following month, Amazon filed suit against Barnes & Noble, which had recently begun using a similar single-click process, known as "Express Lane", at its website.

Amazon sought a preliminary injunction to prevent Barnes & Noble from using its single-click ordering process, claiming patent infringement.

Furthermore, the court held that Amazon would suffer irreparable harm, which "could not easily be measured in dollars", due to the likelihood of consumer confusion and an inability to distinguish its invention from that of its competitors, including Barnes & Noble.

This ruling was handed down in December 1999, with the district court acknowledging the need to address the patent dispute during the 1999 holiday shopping season, which was the first in which e-commerce became a significant tool for American consumers.

This invalidated much of Amazon's patent infringement claim, because Barnes & Noble's Express Lane could not be considered an unauthorized copy.

The circuit court held that while Amazon could argue other types of infringement under U.S. patent law, its arguments in the present case were not strong enough to justify the injunction against Barnes & Noble's Express Lane technique.