Fun_People Archive
22 Oct
More patents of the apocalypse

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 99 15:26:29 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: More patents of the apocalypse

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From: Kevin Maguire


Remember the earlier discussion about the patent office granting patents to
unoriginal, screamingly obvious ideas?

One of them has made it to court.

<http://cnnfn.com/1999/10/22/bizbuzz/amazon/>

>Amazon.com Inc. said Friday it is suing
>barnesandnoble.com Inc. for patent infringement, charging its
>online rival with illegally using a key element of its cyberspace
>shopping system.
  [...]
>Seattle-based Amazon (AMZN) said the system copies its
>1-Click feature, which allows customers to enter their credit card
>number and address just once, avoiding the need to re-enter that
>data on follow-up visits to the Amazon site.

Are the patent examiners for ecommerce so ignorant of the offline business
world that they thought the idea of remembering a customer's address and
payment method for future sales was original, or does doing it with a
website magically make everything new?

What next - autobytel.com patents the idea of leasing cars rather than
selling them?  grocerystore.com patents the idea of delivering you groceries
every couple of days and billing you for the lot at the end of the month?

- KM

© 1999 Peter Langston