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Patents The Internet Businesses

Amazon Seeks Web Services Patent 178

Posted by Zonk from the more-for-the-money dept.
theodp writes "CNET reports on Amazon.com's latest attempt to make inroads into consumers' wallets, a patent-pending online marketplace where consumers search and pay for Web services. The patent application describes a world in which Amazon collects fees from Web Service Providers who charge $500/month for AAA Street Maps, $200/month for driving directions, and $0.01/use for weather and human genome maps." From the article: "Amazon also notes its marketplace technology seeks to address the lack of easy-to-use methods for collecting consumers' Web services payments, as well as to provide Web services companies with ways to manage and monitor their offerings. In its role as an intermediary for the marketplace, Amazon would collect a fee from companies providing the service."
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Amazon Seeks Web Services Patent More

Amazon Seeks Web Services Patent

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  • This is insanity (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Winckle ( 870180 ) <`ku.oc.elkcniw' `ta' `kram'> on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:26PM (#13198516) Homepage
    How the hell can you patent the ability to charge money in exchange for services!
    Surely thats equivelent to patenting capitalism!
    • How the hell can you patent the ability to charge money in exchange for services!
      Surely thats equivelent to patenting capitalism!
      ... "on the internet".
      For the USPTO, that's a difference big enough.

    • Re:This is insanity (Score:3, Insightful)

      by DaHat ( 247651 )
      Not exactly, it is a business model, the patenting of which is quite popular and at times lucrative. Pretty much sounds like UUDI + payment which would technically be considered a new and novel idea dare I say it.
      • All they are doing is making themselves the middleman in the trade of services. This has been done throughout the entire history of business in one form or the other. All they did was add "over the internet".

    • Pimp my services (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "charge money in exchange for services!"

      Its the world oldest profession. And being the middleman pimp is the worlds second oldest.
    • Well, I'd never expect it from Sweet innoncent Amazon.com [google.com] I mean they only patented 1-click shopping, got awarded the patent and sued everyone.

    • That is not why Amazon piss me off (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tod_miller ( 792541 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @06:50PM (#13199024) Journal
      Amazon have pissed in the face of Tim Berners Lee (www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/), and every engineer since 1950, who have worked to develop technology that supports the Amazon way of life.

      Amazon only exists because of the work of 100,000 people, NONE OF WHOM work at Amazon.

      I know someone who works at Amazon, he does Perl coding. I don't see Amazon patenting Perl stuff.

      All their credit cards, internet, protocols, databases, are all other peoples work. And now this.

      WEB SERVICES WERE NOT INVENTED OR ENVISAGED BY AMAZON - they are once again stealing other peoples work, and just saying, well, we use them, so lets patent them.

      They are steaking peoples work, and the f*ckers should be flogged, I have said it before and I wil say it again, Amazon are so f*cking arrogant to do this, they just take take take take take. Language? F*ck yeah, they can piss off.

      You know, I bought a shed load of stuff off Amazon, I mean lots, $2500 in about 8 months, which is fairly good. I spend about the same at an online travel company. They have been good to me, so I still use them, Amazon have no pissed me off. Guess what, in the next 8 months, 0 for them.

      So what they make more money than then entire readership of slashdot does in a week in about an hour of trading.

      To confirm you're not a script,
      please type the word in this image: inboard random letters - if you are visually impaired, please email us at pater@slashdot.org
      • Get some perspective here,

        in the current climate you NEED to take any patent you can, that is why google has patented highlighting search results [uspto.gov] yet slashdot never informed anyone of this. Basically only Amazon's patents are reported here. Also it isn't just web services that have been patented, since there are very few people here can actually read a patent to know what it actually covers or how narrow it actually is.

        then there is the fact that contrary to popular belief amazon has rarely used thei

        • Microsoft tries to patent things like FAT, dragging icons, the colour blue.

          But at least it designed / developed / colour tested / invented / copied in a darkened basement these things and actively created them.

          Amazon downloaded *apache.org/*ws* and then says, wow this is neat technology, it must have been made for us! Woohoo lets patent its applications.

          And google actually wrote the search engine highlighting at least. You see. Google innovated, they invented new ways of doing things (obvious or not) and wa

          • Re:You don't get it (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Tim C ( 15259 )
            And google actually wrote the search engine highlighting at least. You see. Google innovated, they invented new ways of doing things (obvious or not) and wanted to eeek as much of an edge from their efforts as possible (and counter Microsofts course of action).

            Are you seriously suggesting that google invented highlighting of matching terms in search results?

    • Surely thats equivelent to patenting capitalism!

      Of course Amazon can patent capitalism! They've been patenting everything anyone can do, why should capitalism be an exception?

      -- The price of eternal vigilance is a dollar a day and half an hour of your time.
      Carefully choose a responsible newspaper. Support it, read it, write to it. Do your part.

  • Your Web Service Will Ship in 2-3 Days (Score:5, Funny)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:27PM (#13198520)
    Damn latency!

  • Online Yellow Pages? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:28PM (#13198532)
    This sounds like a business directory, only online. How the hell could you patent something like this? It just doens't seem right.

    • Re:Online Yellow Pages? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Virak ( 897071 )
      Yes, but it's on computers! And as you should be well aware by now, computers turn almost all non-geeks into babbling idiots.

    • Re:Online Yellow Pages? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by aftk2 ( 556992 )
      Well, sort of - except none of the goods being sold are tangible. Instead, it's access to a web service.

      This, of course, does not refute your original point, about this simply being a business directory. I think idea is actually a pretty interesting one, although interesting and patentable are two very different things.
      • I want a patent on a process whereby any information you could have asked a person for before (phone numbers, addresses, book titles) will be accessed via a computer and a computer will respond with the information.

    • Re:Online Yellow Pages? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by aftermath09 ( 521504 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:54PM (#13198719)

      I totally agree. At their core, web services are a common protocol (eg. SOAP) that allow disparate systems to communicate. As far as discoverable services, have the lawyers checked out http://www.uddi.org [uddi.org]? in addition, servers such as juddi [apache.org] from apache (and many others) already implement this protocol.

      Ultimately though, isn't having "discoverable" services very similar to things like jndi, ldap, and even DNS? what, is amazon gonna patent these as well?!

      I hope my American counterparts put an end to this silliness. Surely, Amazon wasn't the first to come up with these ideas, so taking credit for it and being rewarded monetarily seems ridiculous. Monetary reward for a good idea is what a patent is for isn't it?

    • Because the US patent system is busted, and apparently has gone into a state that could be best described as severe mental retardation. I've seen half-eaten hamburgers that have more sense than the USPO now appears to have. I suppose at some point someone will finally put the breaks on this, but until then expect Amazon to start patenting "Pressing C to cancel transaction" and other such nonsense. The saddest thing is that even if the system is overhauled, guys like Amazon won't be punished by being bloc
    • Isn't this basically ebay(with integrated paypal)?
    • There have been many proposals for creating business directories online for web services. There are even WS standards for how to conduct the negotiation and demonstration systems.

  • correction (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:29PM (#13198538)
    From TFA:

    Correction: This story incorrectly reported the status of Amazon's patent application. The application was published Thursday; it had been filed last year.

  • It's the classic tactic... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:30PM (#13198541)
    perfected by generations of record company executives and book publishers: stick yourself between the money and the talent.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:It's the classic tactic... (Score:5, Informative)

        by sharkb8 ( 723587 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:58PM (#13198740)
        Ford did get a patent on parts of the assemby line process. It expired decades ago. And manufacturers could ship goods produced on the assembly line process unless Ford got a patent on producing a particular good using the assembly line process.

        Typical reactionary crap by someone who doesn't shit about the patent system.
        • More likely they'd write a patent Ford needed, and enter a co-licensing agreement.
          • too true.

            But generally, the big companies are so far ahead, research-wise, that they are able to get many more patents than the independent inventor. The big guys generally only want to cross license with other big companies.

  • Umm... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by cached ( 801963 )
    "Current Web services implementations do not typically provide effective means for potential consumers to discover or locate Web services that are desired or that may be of interest." Ever heard of google?

  • "Rent Seeking" (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sehlat ( 180760 )
    Sounds like the **AA organizations continuing efforts to sink a siphon into EVERYBODY'S wallets, whether they want it sunk or not.
  • How is this any different from the days of paid placement on Altavista and Yahoo? (before they "Googleized" themselves)

  • Where do the prices come from? (Score:5, Funny)

    by msobkow ( 48369 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:31PM (#13198551) Homepage Journal

    Neither the article nor the patent application mentions anything about $500/mo. for maps, nor any of the other pricing that the /. text mentions.

    Maybe the /. article itself should be modded as "flamebait." :)

    • I think that was just given as an example of what Amazon intends to do.

      Right now, its marketplace sells physical things: used/new books, etc. They're extending that to include web services now as well, so you can go to amazon's marketplace and buy or subscribe to a web service, and for connecting consumers and webservices, amazon gets a cut, and Amazon patents everything it does whether its an invention or not.
    • See the IMAGES section...

  • EPIC 2014 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by USSJoin ( 896766 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:33PM (#13198576) Homepage
    You know, every time I read something along the lines "Amazon Does Something That Slashdot Users Are Going to Hate," I think of the EPIC 2014 flash, talking about Amazon and Google merging to control the 'net. Yeah, yeah, bad patents, etc.-- but the real question is, who else will do this work? Who else is going to handle the e-business for those too lazy to do it themselves? They have a valid point, that businesses want someone else to do collection and authentication.

    And, of course, they aren't making some kind of patent requiring exclusivity. So anybody who *does* want to do it themselves, still can.

    So, my question to /.: Do we actually resent companies who do things well, doing them? If not, then what's our collective problem?

    • Re:EPIC 2014 (Score:2, Insightful)

      by gknoy ( 899301 )
      The problem is not that they want to step up and do what no one else wants to (provide non-glamorous services that businesses would rather pay for than do in-house). The problem is that they wantto PATENT it, which would grant them exclusivity unless you pay them, for an idea that has its basis in somethign already out there:

      - Monster.com matches job seekers with those looking for their services
      - itmoonlighter does similarly

      The idea of a website which connects service seekers with service providers should
    • "And, of course, they aren't making some kind of patent requiring exclusivity. So anybody who *does* want to do it themselves, still can."

      I'm a bit confused. Isn't exclusivity and licensing the point of patents? Amazon doesn't have a great track record of non-exclusivity.

      Amazon Patents User Viewing Histories [slashdot.org]
      Amazon Patents Cookies (from the "are you f'ing kidding me dept.) [zdnet.co.uk]
      Amazon One-Click Shopping [stanford.edu]

      From what I can see, Amazon's primary business may be Amazon.com. But, it's secondary business i
      • Problem is that if they don't do it someone else may, and then they may sue them. BAsically, they're screwed either way and whatever bad press this may cause is probably less damaging than a potential lawsuit. The Patent system is a mess and such things are the result of it.
        • It's a pretty piss-poor excuse, considering Amazon has used patents of this nature to attack competition. Amazon isn't simply getting patents to defend itself, it's very clearly trying to assemble a portfolio so that it can get licensing off of others who wish to use such patents.

          I'll agree that a sick and disabled patent system is the root, but Amazon is an abuser, not simply a company covering its ass.

      • Amazon has enforced patents twice in it's history. One against BN.com after barnes and noble instead of trying to develop their own website completely copied amazon's design just before a christmas shopping season. They did this while in the middle of a back and forth of progressively ruder press releases by each company. In the end Amazon got the last laugh on that one. The Second time when Cedent tried to enforce one of their patents on Amazon. Amazon quickly reminded them that they are (as well as mo

  • Prediction (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheSpoom ( 715771 ) * <{ten.00mrebu} {ta} {todhsals}> on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:34PM (#13198578) Homepage Journal
    From the article, this looks to be a combination of a specialized search engine and some sort of PayPal equivalent, which they want to protect by patent so nobody else can do quite the same thing. My prediction is a free (ad-supported, perhaps) but slightly different equivalent will come along slightly after this is launched, and hopefully an entertaining patent lawsuit that will take over the hole that SCO has left in Slashdot for some time now.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Another day, another Amazon patent. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Personally I'm surprised Bezos doesn't have bodyguards and firearms at all times like Darl McBride with the way he pisses the OSS movement off.

  • WTF? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Virak ( 897071 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:35PM (#13198590) Homepage
    "Current Web services implementations do not typically provide effective means for potential consumers to discover or locate Web services that are desired or that may be of interest."
    Ever heard of google, dumbass?
    • Ever heard of google, dumbass?

      Ok--to all you "what about Google" folks--this is talking about discovery of Web Services [wikipedia.org] not about a human using a search engine to find a web site. It's not a trivial problem, and that statement quoted of TFA is not as far off as you might think (but you have to know what it means by Web Services).

      I'm not taking the side of Amazon here, but let's please at least try to understand what we're arguing about first!

    • Google's normal offerings are not a solution to this problem.
  • Sorry, but I would just prefer having some advertising instead of paying a few cents per search.
  • The is awesome. The USPTO needs to approve this so that Jeff Bezos can get more money for his pet project Blue Origin. http://blueorigin.com/ [blueorigin.com]
    • Blue Origin == Amazon's crazy-ass patents in space.

      2015 -- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos granted a patent today on a system which describes the means of utilizing reusable launch vehicles in order to reach sub-orbital space.

      2016 -- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos granted a patent today involving a system for colonization of non-Earth worlds involving reusable launch vehicles in order to obtain a landing on said planet's surface, Mars for example. Changes name to Vilos Cohaagen.

      2017 -- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos granted

  • Simply Put... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SolarCanine ( 892620 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:38PM (#13198617) Journal
    ...Amazon is attempting to patent the business practice of being both the owner of the mall and the payment processor rolled into one.

    No, not a lot of new ideas here. No, not patent worthy in my estimation.

    That being said, I do believe there is a market for a web services aggregator like this model - small web services, independently operated, but tied together through a unified interface and payment system would offer a lot of convenience for the non-/. crowd out there. There's a reason that the Yellow Pages continues to make money, and there's a reason that PayPal is successful. Amazon wants to position yet another incarnation of themselves there; kudos. But patenting the concept seems like a decent waste of government resources and time.

    But if it'll get the Federal Government off of the Hot Coffee bandwagon, eh, what's a little more damage to the patent system...

  • This patent violates my patent! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pakaran2 ( 138209 ) <windrunner.gmail@com> on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:39PM (#13198626)
    This patent violates my US Pat. No. 31415926, relevant parts of the patent are quoted below:

    US Pat 31415926: Mechanism for patenting obvious computer-related shit and suing people who are already doing it:

    Claimed:

    A mechanism, consisting of

    a) a lawyer
    b) obvious computer-related shit
    c) a large collection of buzzwords, including but not limited to "Via tcp/ip," "client-server architecture," "VLSI processor" and "fully TLA compliant"
    d) a patent on said shit, including said buzzwords
    e) a lawsuit filed by lawyer (a) invoking patent (d) and buzzwards (c)

    Methodology:

    1. Come up with obvious computer-related shit (b) that tens of thousands of companies worldwide were already doing
    2. Hire lawyer (a) to write and file patent (d) using buzzwords (c) to make shit (b) appear nontrivial.
    3. Retain lawyer (a) to file lawsuit (e) against companies mentioned in step 1
    4. Settle out of court, or drag lawsuit out until said small companies settle

    As can be clearly seen, Amazon is infringing on my patent! What does the slashdot community recommend I do?

  • Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by le_jfs ( 627582 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:39PM (#13198627) Journal
    Let's divide the world in two halves:
    - United Patent States of Amerika: formerly know as the land of the free
    - Rest of the World (tm): where every free-seeking developper, webmaster, etc will eventually go.

    Although I'll probably be modded flamebait for this post, let's check in 5 years if the USA can still cope with the current system that eats liberties, innovation and more ...

    Ah, yes, one more thing: I wish you good luck.
    • Let's divide the world in two halves:
      - United Patent States of Amerika: formerly know as the land of the free
      - Rest of the World (tm): where every free-seeking developper, webmaster, etc will eventually go.

      What is this United Patent States of Amerika you speak of? We have always been Soviet America, and have always been at war with Oceania ... um, Iraqiranicelandistan.

  • Disbar Patent Abusers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:39PM (#13198628) Homepage Journal
    There's got to be a way to outlaw "patent predators". They're screwing up the system, filing "frivolous" patents for anything their lawyers can plug into the boilerplate, regardless of whether they invented it, own it, have a use for it, made it work, or any other criteria. They merely patent everything, because the only cost is lawyers' fees. Amazon and other corporations have lawyers on salary or otherwise at low cost for fixed time. So they become patent mills, making up with one "hit" on a patent that makes money all their losses on those that are rejected, or don't make money. But there's no "history" applied against a patenter that merely fills up the patent legal system with junk (including rejections). So there's no reason for them not to abuse the system - especially as its cost, especially in the Judicial Branch which tries/hears patent challenge cases, is so heavily subsidized by the taxpayers (of which corporations are very underrepresented).

    Patent attorneys that have a "batting average" below some level, maybe 30%, should be barred from filing, or even working on, applications. Until maybe they've earned the right again, like by some kind of recertification from a real law school. And would-be patent holders below a certain percentage should also be barred. The PTO and courts should also be able to find people guilty of "patent abuse", which would bar them from applying for some sentenced time.

    Until then, we have to expect that since the people are paying for these patents to be "attempted", the applicants will generate more of them. We have to get our Representatives to pass laws to rein in these serial abusers. And elect Representatives who will do so - the entire House is up for reelection in 2006, and 1/3 of the Senate. If we even make it more expensive for incumbents to get reelected, that will neutralize lots of corporate bribes^Wdonations that keep the status quo, at our expense.
    • I prefer to call them the Patent Bandits.

  • Nothing has changed (Score:5, Informative)

    by Evro ( 18923 ) * <evandhoffman.gmail@com> on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:40PM (#13198636) Homepage Journal
    Jeff Bezos's Open Letter Re: Patents, March 9, 2000: [techlawjournal.com]

    AN OPEN LETTER FROM JEFF BEZOS ON THE SUBJECT OF PATENTS

    I've received several hundred e-mail messages on the subject of our 1-Click ordering patent. Ninety-nine percent of them were polite and helpful. To the other one percent -- thanks for the passion and color!

    Before I go on, I'd like to thank Tim O'Reilly. Tim and I have had three long conversations about this issue, and they've been incredibly helpful to me as I've tried to clarify in my mind what is the right thing to do. I had previously known Tim as the publisher of the successful and excellent O'Reilly technical books. He off-handedly proved his narrative and editing skills when he took what was our first rambling hour-long conversation and somehow made sense of it all in a posting on his site. My thinking on the topic of business method and software patents has been strongly influenced by Tim's observations, and especially his ability to ask excellent questions. I also read the first four hundred or so responses to Tim's summary of our conversation -- these too were helpful.

    Now, while we've gotten substantially less e-mail on this issue than we have over several other lightning-rod issues in the past, I've spent a lot more time thinking about this one. Why? Because the more I thought about it, the more important I came to realize this issue is. I now believe it's possible that the current rules governing business method and software patents could end up harming all of us -- including Amazon.com and its many shareholders, the folks to whom I have a strong responsibility, not only ethical, but legal and fiduciary as well.

    Despite the call from many thoughtful folks for us to give up our patents unilaterally, I don't believe it would be right for us to do so. This is my belief even though the vast majority of our competitive advantage will continue to come not from patents, but from raising the bar on things like service, price, and selection -- and we will continue to raise that bar. We will also continue to be careful in how we use our patents. Unlike with trademark law, where you must continuously enforce your trademark or risk losing it, patent law allows you to enforce a patent on a case-by-case basis, only when there are important business reasons for doing so.

    I also strongly doubt whether our giving up our patents would really, in the end, provide much of a stepping stone to solving the bigger problem.

    But I do think we can help. As a company with some high-profile software patents, we're in a credible position to call for meaningful (perhaps even radical) patent reform. In fact, we may be uniquely positioned to do this.

    Much (much, much, much) remains to be worked out, but here's an outline of what I have in mind:

    1. That the patent laws should recognize that business method and software patents are fundamentally different than other kinds of patents.

    2. That business method and software patents should have a much shorter lifespan than the current 17 years -- I would propose 3 to 5 years. This isn't like drug companies, which need long patent windows because of clinical testing, or like complicated physical processes, where you might have to tool up and build factories. Especially in the age of the Internet, a good software innovation can catch a lot of wind in 3 or 5 years.

    3. That when the law changes, this new lifespan should take effect retroactively so that we don't have to wait 17 years for the current patents to enter the public domain.

    4. That for business method and software patents there be a short (maybe 1 month?) public comment period before the patent number is issued. This would give the Internet community the opportunity to provide prior art references to the patent examiners at a time when it could really help. (Thanks to my friend Brewster Kahle for this suggestion.)

    To this end, I've alrea

    • Back in the early 80s I trademarked All Of The Above, so I'm afraid he's in violation, by trying to patent a previously trademarked concept.

      He can pay me ... evil laugh ... a zillion dollars!.

      Small unmarked bills please. In easily carried spacecraft, if you don't mind ...
    • Wow, that was back in 2000 and Amazon continues to pile on lame-ass patents that they themselves recognize as something that shouldn't be patentable. I could see the angle of we're doing it preemptively for our protection if they'd had a legal document saying that they wouldn't sue any company or individual that didn't sue them first.

  • The Real Jeff Bezos? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by grumpygrodyguy ( 603716 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:44PM (#13198666)
    The patent application describes a world in which Amazon collects fees from Web Service Providers who charge $500/month for AAA Street Maps, $200/month for driving directions, and $0.01/use for weather and human genome maps.

    I've always thought of Jeff Bezos as some kind of Robin Hood. A guy that doesn't care about money so much as creating great services and technologies and bringing them to the world. Bear with me...but it occurs to me that if someone truly hated the current software patent norm and they had a lot of money, they could simply apply for every software patent they could think of and lock the patents up and throw away the proverbial key.

    So I guess my question is, is there any reason to give Jeff Bezos the benefit of the doubt here? Is it possible, however improbable, that's he's applying for these seemingly absurd patents as a means of keeping the internet alive by not enforcing his patents?

    • Re:The Real Jeff Bezos? (Score:5, Informative)

      by crabpeople ( 720852 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @06:08PM (#13198798) Journal
      Do you know how hard it is to close an account with amazon? I found out that they were tracking me on other websites, after my full name came up while browsing some store. Thats a very scary thing to see happen. I demanded that they delete all trace of me from their systems.

      6 months later and they still are sending me junk email. This is after talking on the phone and email, being notified that my account was closed multiple times (they jsut flagged it the first few times aparently), and also trying to close it myself. Do you know what their website says when you try and close your account? theres no way to do it! they scare you into keeeping your account open, offer to delete your CC number from the account, etc. then after repeatedly telling them to just close the fucking account already, they prompt you to email someone. said email recipient tells you its closed, then a week later you are still able to logon and all your info is still there.

      I mean come on. a button that says "close account" like every other god damn website out there. is that too much to ask? screw amazon. I dont trust them one bit.

  • Patent written in BASIC! (Score:3, Funny)

    by LionKimbro ( 200000 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @05:50PM (#13198700) Homepage
    I mean, dude, check this out:


    [0066] After steps 575 or 585, the routine continues to step 595 to determine whether to continue, and if not continues to step 599 and ends. If it was instead determined in step 595 to continue, or in step 520 that the WS consumer registration was not successful, or in step 535 that the WS use request was not accepted, or in step 565 that any needed payment was not received, the routine returns to step 505.


    We stopped using line numbers waaaay long time ago. That's so old-school.

    They need to write their patents in, at the very least, C or Pascal.

    ASM code should be forbidden.
  • I'd like to see how the hell they're going to enforce such a stupid thing.
  • I want to patent tax collection .. then sue the federal government for patent infringement ..

    The scarrrry part is that that is not all that much more stupid than some patent applications that we are seeing.
  • How about patenting "A method to search internet for information"
    1. type http://www.google.com/ [google.com]
    2. fill in your search term in text box.
    3. Click on 'Google Search'

  • Are patents for real? (Score:5, Informative)

    by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) ( 613870 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @06:06PM (#13198789) Journal
    I recently file a patent for some software work. (Yeah, yeah, before you have a go at me I'd like to point out I was under considerable contractual obligatation at the time...)

    Anyway, when the final patent was written up I didn't really understand it. It was my algorithm, and solely mine, but much of the patent text made little sense to me. A big chunk was merely what I had written with legalese inserted. But other chunks were beyond me. In the claim section was a list of claims and each claim just looked like a paraphrase of the previous one. The patent office responded recently saying that they rejected a bunch of claims and accepted the rest. I checked out the claims: they were just paraphrases of all the other claims. There is no way they could have been singled out in a meaningful way as being different from the others - certainly not so different that they needed rejection instead of acceptance. It was bizarre.

    Anyway, after my experience with the patent office I'm inclined to think the process is basically fake. Lawyers write a bunch of gobbledygook for high fees. Patent exmainers pretend they understand it for a low salary (but it's better than unemployment, right?). And then they roll dice to decide what to do with it.

  • And this would be why... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ShatteredDream ( 636520 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @06:26PM (#13198893) Homepage
    I pretty much have nothing to do with Amazon anymore. You want to protest this sort of thing? Go buy some books from another online retailer. Before you do, check to see if your Visa can be registered with visaextras.com. Buying from B&N through visaextras.com gets you a 20 bonus points/dollar spent at B&N, and if you buy a typical load of college text books, you'll be able to get a free gift card for NOT shopping at Amazon :)

    (I don't get anything out of advertising visaextras, I just want to give people an incentive to protest Amazon)
  • How can they patent a Microsoft technology? If anyone gets the patent it would Microsoft. You can generate web services in Microsoft Visual Studio within 5 clicks. Web services are nothing more than an API. So they want to make a patent in which they can charge for content using an API, hmmm... Everybody does that already.
  • If you don't like Amazon's tactics, instead of hot air, then let your money do your talking: shop elsewhere and let your friends and families know you don't shop at Amazon and tell them why...
  • Amazon are seeking a patent on a technology they did not develop, envisage or architect. A technology that was used by many more before them.

    In other news, Kia motors have decided to patent the internal combustion engine, because, what the hey, how do they know they weren't the actual ones who invented it?
  • Because that would be exactly the same thing as they are doing now. If Amazon start using bittorrent to sell video media on their website - you can bet your ass they will patent it.

    What makes me SICK is that the libraries they use to facilitate their 'invention' of web services are not written by them, but are most probably common open source implementations.

    So :

    1) wait for open source communities to develop cool things
    2) use it
    3) patent it to lock other out

    What the fuck Amazon? Just to let you know I won't
  • I know that on /. amazon are seen as the best thing to happen to books since sliced bread, but with all this patent grabbing (and pursuing) isn't it time we considered a boycott?

    I for one am having second thoughts about whether to give them any more of my business if this is how they conduct themselves.

    If they were any other company would these practices not by now have put them only slightly below SCO on the evil scale?

  • F*** Amazon! I'm Shopping at Wal-Mart! (Score:3, Funny)

    by wsanders ( 114993 ) on Friday July 29, 2005 @07:24PM (#13199197) Homepage
    No more of this I.P. bullshit! Stand up for old fashioned traditional American union busting, predatory pricing, and worker exploitation!
  • Just from the impression I get from TFA, this sounds a little like I'd be paying for the privelege of seeing advertisements. Am I misinterpreting this, or is this the case? Some clarification would be nice.
  • Who's charging this? These are the same maps that members can get in paper form for free at the AAA, are they not?
  • The best things in life are fees, right?
  • Strip away the tech related bits and Amazon are patenting a really new idea: charging people money for a service :). Think the whores of Babylon beat them to it ;).

  • I admit that I have been pissed at Amazon ever since they
    did the "one click shopping" patent, on the other hand, they are one of my main online shopping sites for items for my home, bath, and bedroom. Just recently I bought a new Bed mattress/pillow sham/etc set from them that was $300 less than where I found it locally. I think this is a problem many people face. I refuse to go to Walmart buy HP products, and will not buy Nike shoes ( though I have bought other products from them ).

    Luckily, I found another

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