Bezos Patents Information Exchange

theodp writes "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was handed a patent Tuesday for Information exchange between users of different web pages. Tough to tell what exactly it might cover ('various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention'), although RSS Newsreaders, TrackBacks, and Google News come to mind. Elements of Bezos' invention may evoke a sense of deja vu in those who used Third Voice or the Annotation Engine."

Holy...

[FireballX301]

ABSTRACT OF THE PATENT:

A method and system for allowing users of different web pages to exchange information. The information exchange system identifies groups of related web pages and maintains a database of user-supplied information for each group of related web pages. When a user accesses a web page, the information exchange often displays in a separate area the information associated with the group of related web pages. Also, the information exchange system allows the user to enter information that will be displayed to other users who access related web pages.

Note the prevalence of 'user-supplied'. From my interpretation, it's just a system that allows users to provide information about a category of 'related' web pages, and for that to show up.

Sounds suspiciously like Wikipedia to me.

Re:Holy...

[ravind]

There's a very good article [syr.edu] here about what getting a patent actually means.

To quote:
"the question is not whether you will be able to obtain a patent, a patent most certaily will be able to be obtained. In fact, by some estimates well over 90% of all patent applications ripen into some form of an issued United States patent."

And from another example [syr.edu]:
The fact that a patent can be obtained or has been obtained does not mean that a valuable asset has been obtained, and this "invention" is a wonderfully vibrant example of that. There must always be consideration given to whether the protection that is or could be obtained is worthwhile to obtain in light of the intended use.

So if Bezos wants to waste his money on lawyers, good for him.

This is what the patent really covers

[SquarePants]

Reading Patents 101:

There are 3 independent claims, 1, 9 and 16. They are reproduced below. Forget about all of the flowery language in the description. The claims are what determines what the patent holder can prevent others from doing. If Bezos & Co. decides to enforce this patent, they would have to prove that the accused infringer is practicing EVERY ELEMENT of at least one of the claims. I will leave it to others to comment on how difficult that would be.

The claims are:

1. A method in a computer system for exchanging information between users of web sites, the method comprising:

providing a mapping between a first web site and a second web site;
when a first user accesses the first web site,
providing a web page of the first web site;
receiving information from the first user; and
storing the received information based on the provided mapping; and
when a second user accesses the second web site,
providing a web page of the second web site;
retrieving the stored information based on the provided mapping; and
providing a display of the retrieved information so that the first and second users can exchange information.

9. A method in a computer system for controlling the exchange of information between users of web pages, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a web page from a first user computer;
retrieving the web page from a first web server;
sending the retrieved web page to the first user computer;
retrieving information associated with the web page, the retrieved information having been previously received from second user computer when accessing a web page of a second web server; and
sending the retrieved information to the first user computer.

16. A method in a computer system for accessing information associated with a web page, the method comprising:

sending a request for a first web page; and
in response to sending the request,
receiving the first web page; and
receiving information associated with the first web page, the information being previously entered by a user when accessing a second web page, the information having been entered separately from the second web page.

Annotea Project

[Feneric]

With the mention of both Third Voice and the Annotation Engine, I'm surprised the somewhat more standard (or at least endorsed by the W3C) Annotea [w3.org] wasn't referenced.

Besides having native support in Amaya [w3.org], there's a plug-in [mozdev.org] being actively developed for the Mozilla family of browsers.

Re:This is what the patent really covers

[Baricom]

I confess that these aren't the best examples, mainly because I had trouble with words like "mapping." However, this patent seems "obvious" to me, a person who most people consider to be "skilled in the art."

1. A method in a computer system for exchanging information between users of web sites, the method comprising:

providing a mapping between a first web site and a second web site;
Slashdot includes an RSS feed that My Yahoo! knows how to read;

when a first user accesses the first web site,
providing a web page of the first web site;
When I visit http://www.slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org], the Slashdot web server gives me a web page;

receiving information from the first user; and
I submit an article;

storing the received information based on the provided mapping; and
Slashdot publishes the article;

when a second user accesses the second web site,
providing a web page of the second web site;
When my friend Jane Doe visits http://my.yahoo.com/ [yahoo.com], the Yahoo! server gives her a web page;

retrieving the stored information based on the provided mapping; and
Yahoo! pulls Slashdot's RSS feed;

providing a display of the retrieved information so that the first and second users can exchange information.
Jane can now read my post. If Jane submits a story to Slashdot, I could similarly read her post.

9. A method in a computer system for controlling the exchange of information between users of web pages, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a web page from a first user computer;
I decide I want to visit Slashdot, but I'm behind a firewall. I tell the proxy server to retrieve http://www.slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org] for me;

retrieving the web page from a first web server;
The proxy server retrieves Slashdot;

sending the retrieved web page to the first user computer;
The proxy server sends Slashdot to my computer;

retrieving information associated with the web page,
the retrieved information having been previously received from second user
computer when accessing a web page of a second web server; and
My previously-mentioned friend Jane pulls the RSS feed from Slashdot via My Yahoo!;

sending the retrieved information to the first user computer.
And she sends it to me via IM.

16. A method in a computer system for accessing information associated with a web page, the method comprising:

sending a request for a first web page; and
I visit http://my.yahoo.com/ [yahoo.com];

in response to sending the request,
receiving the first web page; and
Yahoo! sends me back a web page from their server;

receiving information associated with the first web page,
the information being previously entered by a user when accessing a second web page,
the information having been entered separately from the second web page.
Yahoo! shows me my page, with the pages and modules I told them to put on my page at some earlier time via their configuration page.

Re:All you have to do is prove Prior Art

[drphil]

" You know the patent is complete bullshit when they start adding in things like:

various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention"

Nope, this is standard patent language. This is to prevent someone from claiming something like "I did this on a web page with a black background which isn't specifically covered in the patent spec and therefore I'm not infringing."

If you read the rest of the paragraph, the patent coverage is bounded by what's in the claims.

I'm not sticking up for this or any other software patent - but the language you attack can be seen in many patents and is put there to restrict trivial changes from escaping infringement.

Re:Patent Public Review

[SquarePants]

Except for a few cases, every patent application filed is published 18 months after it is filed. During the first 30 days after publication the public can forward any prior art it wishes the USPTO to consider in examining the application. I know it is not the same as the post-issuance opposition that you are suggesting but it is available. Yet, for all the complaining, this right of the public to comment on prospective new patents is almost never exercised.

A lot of people here often complaint about how thinghs "should be" yet they don't even bother to learn how things are.

Re:Holy...

[Qzukk]

I don't know what country YOU live in, but here in the good ol' USA the patent holder can charge any amount for licensing the patent. They can charge per year. They can charge per user. They can charge per unit. MPEG was considering charging mpeg4 encoders per minute of encoded video. They can charge nothing and let anyone use it. They can charge nothing and let NOBODY use it.

In terms of court trials over infringing on some silly patent, if you're found to be knowingly infringing you're out triple the normal damages. Oh, and if you want to get a silly patent struck down? It STILL takes a court battle to get a judgement proving that your invention doesn't infringe, or that the patent is invalid, and if you lose, it pretty much demonstrates that you knew about the patent and infringed it.