Apple, Starbucks Sued Over Music Gift Cards 151
Trintech writes "A Utah couple acting as their own attorneys have filed a lawsuit against Apple and Starbucks over the retailers' recent Song of the Day promotion, which offers Starbucks customers an iTunes gift card for a complimentary, pre-selected song download. In a seven-page formal complaint, James and Marguerite Driessen of Lindon, Utah say they developed in 2000, and were granted a patent in February 2006 for, an Internet merchandising utility dubbed RPOS (retail point of sale). The concept, which forms the heart of the infringement lawsuit, would allow gift cards for pre-defined items that can be sold at a brick-and-mortar store but used online; customers could redeem a card for a dining room set or a DVD, for example."
Anything goes .. (Score:5, Funny)
The patent office is really more of a nuisance than anything nowadays.
Eh
would examine and grant patents
they are
Re:Anything goes .. (Score:1, Funny)
To keep this from spiraling out of control I also offer a metapatent. A patent covering the patenting of patents. Related to patents. You can still patent patenting other things.
Re:What about S&H Green Stamps as prior art? (Score:5, Funny)
No, I'm not sure that I'm kidding.
Re:US Patent 7003500 (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe if they had used an indecipherable code, there wouldn't be so many bogus US patents.
Patent Troll 1: I wonder if anyone has patented "watching grass grow on the Internet" yet?
Patent Troll 2: Let's see: Patent No. 1337-RTFM-OMGWTFBBQ discusses growing plants
Patent Troll 1: Whoa, too much for me. How about we sell penis-enlargement pills instead?
Re:I must rush out (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Its a new invention because its online (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Anything goes .. (Score:4, Funny)
Kill the underdog (Score:3, Funny)