Amazon Patents Electronic Gifting 164
theodp writes "Simply giving your mother an e-book for her birthday could constitute patent infringement now that the USPTO's gone and awarded Amazon.com a patent on the 'Electronic Gifting' of items such as music, movies, television programs, games, or books. BusinessInsider speculates that the patent may be of concern to Facebook, which just dropped a reported $80 million on social gift-giving app maker Karma Science."
guaranteed profit (Score:5, Interesting)
2. put the word "electronic" in front of it
3. file for patent
4. profit
Will probably never be used. (Score:4, Interesting)
For example, person X gives you a some new book, you have previously setup a condition that all gifts get converted to gift cards. You receive notification that they sent you the book and you can then use the gift card to purchase anything you want.
I guess it saves some time and money of shipping the product back but who is really going to use it?