Amazon Scores Another Patent 395
theodp writes "Chalk up yet another patent for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, this time for a Method and system for conducting a discussion relating to an item."
Your own mileage may vary.
Well now (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well now (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well now (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well now (Score:2)
Re:Well now (Score:2, Interesting)
Go non-specific patent claims!
Re:Well now (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm currently offering for sale:
Anyone got comments/stories/advice about this car? Post 'em here, then cease and desist.
Re:Well now (Score:3, Funny)
What, like misc.forsale.computers ?
This whole prior art thing must be pretty tricky. Either that or the twenty monkeys at USPTO need to type faster...
*scoove*
Re:Well now (Score:3, Funny)
I am currently asking for $200, which should cover the cost of all the stuff in the glove box and the trunk.
Re:Well now (Score:3, Interesting)
I think this patent is a little broader than that. A cursory read found this passage
SurelyRe:Well now (Score:4, Interesting)
And with time, the "prior art" is dilluted. Will google have caches of everything ever? Will courts really believe that HTML file and screen shot of the product discussion at SmallCompShop.com from 1996 is legit? Afterall, this is the great visionary Bezos. How could some amateur come up with such a revolutionary idea?
Re:Well now (Score:3, Insightful)
Jeff Bezos:
...the discussion system may be used in conjunction with a non-commercial environment and with a network other than the WWW or even with a system that is not based on a network.
Luckily, we're protected [in the U.S.] by some fine prior art.
The U.S. Constitution (First Ammendment):
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This is a joke right? (Score:3, Redundant)
Re:This is a joke right? (Score:5, Insightful)
I dunno, but if this goes trough... I'll just patent "Drinking wine by removing the cork to allow the wine to pass trough the bottleneck".
That should be a just as valid patent as I see it... Or maybe someone allready got that one pending? You never know, specially not when it comes to the USPO.
Re:This is a joke right? (Score:5, Funny)
Drinking wine by removing the cork to allow the wine to pass trough the bottleneck, on the web
Re:This is a joke right? (Score:2)
We have passed the point (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is a joke right? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is like the one-click misunderstanding. One-click is only obvious after you've seen it working. Before one-click existed, it took a significant effort to innovate it. That effort should (and thankfully has been) rewarded.
If you don't think one-click is hard, consider this: the geek who was assigned to churn out the software after the creative guy had invented the concept came back with a first version that when you clicked "Buy" popped up a dialogue box saying "are you sure?" which you had to click "Yes" to. "One-click" nicely implemented with a "two-click" solution. So even the tech nerds writing the first version didn't understand it.
Re:This is a joke right? (Score:3, Insightful)
Where do YOU think the phrase "User Error" came from ?
One-click required the same "decision" that the process you described does. Except that the decision was blanketed in setting up the users' preferences. Most programs include them, they're called confirmation prompts, and, if you're enough on the ball, you code things so that they're configurable. If you configure to not prompt you in ACCESS ( ok, cheesy example, but it's to the point ), when you're about to run a query that modifies a table...that's ONE-CLICK. If you configure OUTLOOK to automatically send when you click "SEND" ( ooo, what a concept ), instead of making you click "SEND" and then "Send/Receive", guess what...that's ONE-CLICK.
Don't give me this lame argument that because it's implemented on the web, that it somehow gives it this mystique to how something is implemented. Get over yourselves already.
No, it's becoming standard practice for patents (Score:2)
It would be nice if they stated as much explicitely and maybe join the many voices asking that the patent office reject trivial patents like this. Even if you believe in strong IP protections, it can be argued that this trend is a very bad thing. If it continues, it is entirely possible that a groundswell of protests will emerge against patents in general, and I'm not just talking about /. because industry will start to see the entire systems and its costs as parasitic.
Re:No, it's becoming standard practice for patents (Score:2, Interesting)
They licensed one-click to Apple.
Re:This is a joke right? (Score:2)
Then again, then they could patent "showing of gratification through gnawing of digits" or something.
uh oh (Score:2, Funny)
Slashdot did it first? (Score:3, Insightful)
Reading Patents Correctly (Score:2)
I invite everybody reading this article to read and understand the patent abstract, claims, and description. If you're serious about patent reform, you should be able to read and understand patents.
Re:Reading Patents Correctly (Score:3, Funny)
If only the USPTO could reach the high standards you set for
High Standards and Layered Irony (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, Atleast USPTO workers can read/interpret patent applications...
If you're going to mod me down for not being funny, make sure you mod me down (-1: Ha-Ha-Funny) and not (-1: Ironic-Funny)
(NOTE: While the parent's post was funny and in good fun, I think it needs to be mentioned that while USPTO workers are stupid, we should be chagrined for not even achieving USPTO worker's level of stupidity. Hence, my sad joke, depressing irony, and attempt to win you over with a sad joke (second paragraph))
Oh yeah, we're fucked... Know any good jokes?
Re:Reading Patents Correctly (Score:2)
So you have one patent for discussions about articles, one for discussions about items offered for sale, one for discussions about currently played music on the radio, one for discussions about the weather etc..?
How can this not be obvious the same computing principle?
Sorry, but "SELECT (uid, aid) FROM database WHERE ...; Make something with SELECT; UPDATE (uid,aid,text) INTO database;" shouldnt be patentable.
Sorry /. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sorry /. (Score:3, Insightful)
Just another reason to boycott amazon.
Also up for extortion. (Score:2)
Thank you Federal Government, your little office has encouraged so much that is useful and good. Will you next award Yahoo a patent on internet chat? Please! I feel so guilty for using royalty free software.
Further Proof (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm going to patent Common Sense, but I probably won't get too much $$ out of it. Seems that there really isn't much need for it in recent times.
Re:Further Proof (Score:3, Interesting)
Just because something can be patented does not mean it should.
It's a very sad statement on human nature and greed when something like this has to be done to protect companies from patent disuptes. Further, at some point the future, this patent could be abused.
Re:Further Proof (Score:2)
Re:Further Proof (Score:2)
I submitted for a patent in 97. A simple extrapolation of LowJack service for cars.
Instead of calling the cops and having them use GPS trace to find your cars, they would use it to find your kids.
I didn't want to go the route of implants, so I devisded a number of ways to hide a sattelite chip on the child's garments so it could travel with them, but not stand out.
Further I tied it to a companion response to the parents pager/mobile device that would alert them if the child exceeded a specific radius (well within the ability of a GPS system to find) so parents could find their kids if they were wandering, or get a quick alert if they were assisted in their wanderings.
As a parent, I wanted this device.
Patent office told me it was too common of a concept.
So did the multiple VC people I pitched it to.
Yet message boards are more unique than a use of GPS technology? Not that my idea was incredibly innovative (I liked it and still want the service if anyone out there cares to take the idea and run with it), but message boards are not that innovative either.
So why did they get the patent?
Not being a laywer.... (Score:5, Funny)
I should probably go ahead and patent "A method for mass advertising using electronic messaging to a group of recipients" and go for the spammers. But there there isn't much money in repo'd trailer houses.
well... there is well-known prior-art (Score:3, Funny)
Prior are right here! (Score:5, Interesting)
That describes Slashdot. Where the Item to be discussed is a news story.
Re:Prior art right here! more info (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, for anyone with that click paralysis that prevents reading source materials, here is the *gist* of the patent, which targets merchandise (almost unlike
I wish we were seeing more original examples of software method patents, if they are to be allowed at all. There's a lot of patenting the wheel going on here. I wouldn't assume, though, that Amazon enforcing a patent like this would have that much effect. Everyone will migrate elsewhere, as appears (?) to be happening to GIF's following Unisys's demand for license fees. Perhaps I'm an optimist, though I've been rarely accused of it.
BN.com links in /. book reviews are prior art (Score:4, Informative)
which targets merchandise (almost unlike /.)
What about Slashdot Book Reviews [slashdot.org], which include a link to purchase a copy of the book at Barnes & Noble?
Re:Prior art right here! more info (Score:3, Informative)
But seriously. I think B&N has had this on their site all along as well; the question is, did their site start before 1999? I know they were kind of a late-comer on the ecommerce scene (Oh god... I did not just use that phrase).
Anyway, the point about
Re:Prior are right here! (Score:2)
Good thing there's no prior art (Score:2)
Slashdot doesn't do anything like this, and I certainly didn't participate in message boards on a BBS Back in the Day
Is the patent office asleep at the wheel?
.au patent office asleep at "the wheel" (Score:5, Funny)
Is the patent office asleep at the wheel?
I'd think the USPTO is asleep at the wheel in the figurative sense, but the Australian patent office is asleep at the wheel in the literal sense. In fact, the Australian patent office was so asleep that it granted a patent on the wheel [ipmenu.com].
Couldn't a BBS (Score:2)
I mean, really. Somebody down at
the Patent Office needs to put down
the abacus and check out that new
thing called electricity.
You all realize... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, maybe we can actually submit SlashDot as prior art!
(And they said this wasn't art.)
Previous Art (Score:2)
YABB
PHPBoard
CGIBoard
Tomcat BBS
Color64 BBS
Slashdot
Where's my bounty?
D
Re:Previous Art (Score:2)
Re:Previous Art (Score:2)
More stringent patents (Score:3, Funny)
Re:More stringent patents (Score:2)
This will be the "McDonald's made me fat lawsuit" or "I spilled hot coffee on my cooch, now I'm gonna sue lawsuit" of the next millenium
Double Click was a legitimate patent. I think Bezos is starting to feel heat from other esellers again and is building an arsenal to "compete" if eBay gets any bigger!
Re:More stringent patents (Score:2)
Both lawsuits mentioned are real lawsuits. Both have probably cost McDonald's a profitable quarter or two. Both have have probably made a Big Mac for me 10 cents higher. The point is Bezos is using or will use this "arsenal of patents" this to sue his competition into trouble and bad press.
I give no sympathy to the stupid. You don't hold coffee between your legs in a moving car. I want my coffee hot and I want it to stay that way until I finish it. As for the "Fat Lawsuit", that borders on criminal. I think everyone that eats at McDonald's or who owns shares of McDonald's should sue that guy. But McD's doesn't want bad press or some Jesse Jackson organization marching in front of their corporate headquarters.
It was later discovered, for your records, that the old woman who burned her cooch, was the sister in law to the owner of a small coffee chain in the area where she lived. This illustrates the point of competing through litigation.
WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously though, I agree with your stance on the USPTO. They either: a) Must have patent apps up the wazoo and suddenly are getting bonuses based on number of patents accepted, or b) have hired dolts. "Electronic discussion, oh like bulletin boards. Those have been around for... wait. About something for sale. That's new! *sound of approved stamp hitting paper*"
I wonder if it's possible to proactively challenge the validity of these patents. I wonder if it's worth it. (time/money wise).
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
The problem is that if I get a cease-and-desist from someone who holds a patent on dog-walking or whatever, it is very expensive for me to defend myself in court. If I don't defend myself, then I could end up losing by default.
Such patents have a chilling effect on development: people instinctively avoid working in these areas, even when there is plenty of prior art so they have no reason to fear.
A better solution would be for the patent office to be paid to find prior art, rather than the current system where they seem to be paid to rubber-stamp dubious patents.
Rich. (IANAL, but I have written and submitted 2 patents :-)
Metapatent (Score:5, Funny)
This will save them considerable time, and automatically grandfather in everything they haven't tried to patent yet, including such classics as "Allowing full sentences to be used to describe product", "Shipping material ordered by people from our site", and "Using vowels in our company name".
(This message Patent Pending)
Too late! (Score:2)
Shut up ! Do you want to get sued ?!? (Score:2)
But What Can I Do About It? (Score:2)
All I can think of is to write a letter to my congressman and maybe make a donation to the EFF, but I really don't see that making very much of a difference.
Rather than the usual wailing and gnashing that we usually see on these patent abuse threads, can someone please come up with something that an ordinary person without a lot of money can do about the situation?
And if nobody can come up with something good to do, could the editors just stop posting these patent abuse stories, because they always simply generate the same set of responses.
Can anyone say Boycott? (Score:3, Interesting)
Step 2: Start collecting anything that might be relevant prior art. Seeing as this was applied for in 1999 there has to be something. I personally am stunned that something this trivial is a patent, gotta love the USPTO.
Re:Can anyone say Boycott? (Score:2)
Amazon's within to get a patent. It isnt their faults that the UPSTO is a fucktard. If anything, I'd say we ought to move all 'questionable' content to offshore servers and BOYCOTT the US PATENT SYSTEM. Ignore ALL PATENTS concerning software here in the US.
I wish Xine would have DVD decryption default on in the installs. After all, MPlayer does (and look at that nice domain name...).
Legal vs Moral? (Score:2)
Come on, you make it sound like the USTPO forced them to make a broad patent, get real, Amazon is looking for more quick cash to grab, so they patent something everyone uses and sue sue sue. There always a differance between what is legal and what is morally corrent.
Re:Legal vs Moral? (Score:2)
If this was the only case, boycott Amazon. It ISNT. I'd say BOYCOTT USPTO.
Re:Can anyone say Boycott? (Score:3, Interesting)
I will not stop shopping with Amazon over this.
YES... oh YES... (Score:5, Funny)
This means I can cancel all of my meetings. After all discussing things on the agenda would violate the patent and I wouldn't want that.
Oh hang on this means that its okay as long as it isn't structured around a topic. Damn you Amazon for condeming us all to a world which only contains long rambling ill focused meetings.
'scores'? (Score:2)
Scores another patent?
Has this 'e'-business thing become a goddamn competition?
I mean, it's a competition all right, but shouldn't they compete with best prices, best service or best selection? (etc)
Or, what else are Amazon going to do with these, keep them on the walls for posterity? I can't imagine any other reason for these than to shut down (or lessen) competing sites.
Can you?
Re:'scores'? (Score:2)
Then petty little things like good product and customer service can be ignored.
And the best example of this isn't even Microsoft, its the damn Telephone companies.
Heh (Score:3, Insightful)
Prior art (Score:2)
Replace all electronic stuff to just using your voice, have a person as the main distributor and voila, you have prior art going back to the days of the first 'modern' democracy in ancient Greece. The agenda dictates the subjects, the chairman says who can speak and when.
And just for the fun of it: the chairman of the Dutch 'Tweede Kamer' (house of commons) has access to buttons which can turn all microphones on or off individually. Electronic prior art.
This sounds just like... (Score:2)
"A method and system for conducting an electronic discussion relating to a topic. The discussion system of the present invention receives a selection of an item that is to be the topic of the discussion. The discussion system then receives comments relating to the selected item and generates a message that includes a description of the selected item and the received comments. The discussion system then sends the generated message to participants of the discussion. The discussion system receives from a participant who received the generated message additional comments that are to be added to the generated message. The discussion system sends the generated message along with received additional comments to the participants of the discussion."
If they insist on giving out these M&M patents to companies, they should at least have a staff that knows something about software! Its beyond a joke, beyond absurd; who precisely in Amazon is filing these patents, and why dont the people who maintain the gears of Amazon site stump up and say..."ummmm you cant do this"...obviously because Amazon can do this!
Patent system still screwed, news at 11. (Score:2, Funny)
Lets look at the first claim (Score:5, Informative)
This is the preamble. In most cases, the preamble does not actually limit the claim. So let look at the elements of the claim and see if they have been done before.
providing information describing a plurality of items being offered for sale;
So it is showing a bunch of items.
receiving from an originating participant a selection of one of the items being offered for sale;
The client selects one of the items.
providing to the originating participant information describing the selected item offered for sale and an indicator for starting a discussion relating to the item being offered for sale, the information and the indicator to be displayed to the originating participant;
The client gets information about one of the items and the client is told that he can start a discussion on the item.
in response to selection of the displayed indicator by the originating participant of the discussion, providing to the originating participant an initial discussion thread that includes a description of the item being offered for sale;
If the client "selects the displayed indicator" (clicks on a link) a new discussion thread is created where there is a description of the item for sell.
receiving from the originating participant comments to be added to the discussion thread;
The client adds comments.
receiving from the originating participant an indication of one or more other participants of the discussion;
The client notes that he (and perhaps others) is going to be a participant in the discussion.
providing the discussion thread, with the description of the item and the received comments added along with a link that when selected effects the placing of an order to purchase the item, to the one or more other participants, and
Now other people see a link to the discussion thread.
tracking the discussion thread as one or more of the participants add comments to the discussion.
The discussions thread is "tracked". Sending out emails as it is updated is probably enough.
The first claim is probably easily beaten. You would need to find something published or publically known on or before August 1st, 1998 which satisfies all of the above elements/limitations. Of course, there is the doctrine of obviousness (which this could probably be beaten under), but looking at the claims, it might be hard to find something that actually beats this under anticipation. This is especially true considering how limited some of these claims appear.
Re:Lets look at the first claim (Score:2)
That means that it will be equally easy to circumvent this patent, if you happen to have a webshop and wish to add discussion forums to items on sale.
Of course the real problem is that Amazon will likely sue you for infringment anyway.
Court case (Score:2)
We cant sue them because we would be voilating their patent heh
Ahh I'd love to see what happens with this one in court.
Send in the lawyers! (Score:3, Insightful)
Usenet? (Score:5, Informative)
The new Empire (Score:2)
First, you put in place agreements with the rest of the world to enforce each other's "intellectual property rights".
Then you let anybody in your country patent anything they damned well please, trivial, with prior art or not. Then the rest of the world is yours for the taking.
The US patent office has horribly debased it's credibility.
I can see where Amazon is coming from... (Score:5, Insightful)
Rewind 8 or 9 years.
No one bought anything over the internet. E-commerce didn't quite exist.
Here comes some upstart that asks people to risk them the cash to make this new business model happen. They do something that most people would call innovative. A new business model is formed, the face of commerce completely changed. Today everyone sells over the internet.
If you're this upstart who was there since day one doing what no one else did, taking the risks back then which aren't really risks today (relatively speaking), you'd be pretty mad. Especially when your big stupid competitor finally wakes up and realizes the internet exists and copies your site almost exactly, from look to semantics, and starts eating away at your bottom line.
All of your hard work, creative energy, raising capital, the meetings, market analysis, research, etc. you put forth to make your crackpot idea a reality is now being blithely ripped off by your inferior. Through simple cloning your inferior is now your equal.
If you've been in that position before, you know how infuriating it is. So what are your options? Sadly, very few.
Amazon is getting patents because it seems like the only way to fight off their idiot copycat competitors. I think software patents are detestable, but I understand Amazon's reasoning.
It's kind of a mixed bag. It sucks that Amazon does it, but it's not going to stop me from supporting them. Why? I'll put myself in their position.
The position is one where my shareholders are screaming at me to protect their investment which they entrusted in me. A position where my customers are leaving to buy from my copycat because they can't tell the difference anymore no matter what we do. Where my employees who helped me build such a great service are worried that they might not have a job in 6 months. The choice is clear, I'd do the same thing.
Re:I can see where Amazon is coming from... (Score:5, Insightful)
REwind a thousand years...
---No one bought anything over the internet. E-commerce didn't quite exist.
Things were bough in the marketplace. Brick and mortar stores didnt exist.
---Here comes some upstart that asks people to risk them the cash to make this new business model happen. They do something that most people would call innovative. A new business model is formed, the face of commerce completely changed. Today everyone sells over the internet.
Here comes this upstart that actually builds a building for commerce and sells pieces of it for sale for others. A whole new business model is formed: selling parts of your building for sheltered 24-7 markets.
---If you're this upstart who was there since day one doing what no one else did, taking the risks back then which aren't really risks today (relatively speaking), you'd be pretty mad. Especially when your big stupid competitor finally wakes up and realizes the internet exists and copies your site almost exactly, from look to semantics, and starts eating away at your bottom line.
Same goes for then too. After a while, "ideas" are everybody's. You opened up them first, so you reap first. After such, you actually have to BE COMPETITIVE TO MAKE MONEY.
---All of your hard work, creative energy, raising capital, the meetings, market analysis, research, etc. you put forth to make your crackpot idea a reality is now being blithely ripped off by your inferior. Through simple cloning your inferior is now your equal.
And that entitles you to make money? NO. YOu juat happened to be the first to capitalise off of it.
---If you've been in that position before, you know how infuriating it is. So what are your options? Sadly, very few.
You sue for things you can win, not because "It's like mine".
---Amazon is getting patents because it seems like the only way to fight off their idiot copycat competitors. I think software patents are detestable, but I understand Amazon's reasoning.
Competitors... Like Barnes&Noble, eBay, and other online sellers? It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out you can negotiate to sell stuff on the internet. Hell, I've been buying stuff off of Usent since '93. Same "barter", "Agree", "Trade Info". And banks will do escro also, for a price. And the same ratings have been enacted far longer than what eBay has done. It's called public opinion.
---It's kind of a mixed bag. It sucks that Amazon does it, but it's not going to stop me from supporting them. Why? I'll put myself in their position.
I've already advocated instead of boycotting Amazon.com , boycott software Patents that the USPTO agrees to.
---The position is one where my shareholders are screaming at me to protect their investment which they entrusted in me. A position where my customers are leaving to buy from my copycat because they can't tell the difference anymore no matter what we do. Where my employees who helped me build such a great service are worried that they might not have a job in 6 months. The choice is clear, I'd do the same thing.
Innovate or die. That's the heart of capitalism. Whoever stagnates is left in the dust.
Can I get a patent... (Score:2)
As bad as Amazon is.... I don't blame them (Score:3, Insightful)
Choice 1: Go search all over the place for prior art.
Choice 2: Cash Amazon's check and stamp the application with Approval
I think we see the problem. It's time that the US Patent office be held liable for improperly granted patents.
A legitimate reason for patenting the obvious (Score:5, Interesting)
The lawyers convinced us that filing the patent is the only way to prevent someone else from filing a patent, covering your technology, and then suing you, forcing you to PROVE to a court (always a chancy thing) that you had created prior art. And quite frankly every innovation we made to our online calendar showed up 3 months later in someone elses calendar. In fact we even found instances where people had literally cut and pasted our code, comments and all!
So we knew that there were unscroupulous bastards out there, willing to completely rip us off. So bearing that in mind, we agreed to file for patents, not so much to enforce them, but to protect ourselves from future suits. I agree, if the system was healthy and working, we wouldn't need to have done that, but the system is already full of sharks -- I don't blame people for getting shark repellant. Applying for the patent HAS to be done nowadays. Enforcing the patents is when I start to get mad. I know it's a fine line...
Re:A legitimate reason for patenting the obvious (Score:2)
And quite frankly every innovation we made to our online calendar showed up 3 months later in someone elses calendar. In fact we even found instances where people had literally cut and pasted our code, comments and all!
This kind of thing can ruin your week, it's really upsetting when it happens to me, and I imagine some people get outright hitting-the-bottle depressed when it happens to them.
It's even worse when the lawyers tell you that there's almost nothing you can do about it, and it can ruin your whole year if your copycat sues you after THEY have the gall to patent what they stole from you--and why wouldn't they? If they had no moral qualms about ripping you off in the first place, do you really think they'd shy away from patenting your own creation and using it against you?
It does not suprise me that people in this position get patents not only for defense, but to bludgeon the scumbags who rip them off.
Are the patents stupid? Of course they are. But they're granted! And ridiculously enough, enforced! Why wouldn't they apply for them?
So Amazon is doing us all a favor? (Score:2)
Has Amazon ever sued anyone over their patents?
Re:A legitimate reason for patenting the obvious (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine if Stephen King decided to patent a new literary genra, now he is the only one who can author novels in this format. This makes absolutely no sense, especially when the best protection he would have for his new books would be to copyright them and thereby prevent unauthorized copying / redistribution.
It is unimaginable to me that you can patent a creative work. Computer programming is a fairly creative process that anyone with a PC is capable of doing. If I wrote a horror novel, I would not expect to infringe on a patent -- for the same reason that if I wrote a calendaring application I would not expect to be in violation of your patent. How are we suppose to write computer programs if everyone else has a patent on them?
Pure sillyness.
Copyright doesn't work for copying ideas (Score:2)
It's only kindof legitimate (Score:2)
1) Patent it and donate the patent to the public domain.
2) Publish it in a journal. Bell Labs has (had?) a journal specifically for things they dicovered but were not going to patent purely for the purposes of establishing prior art.
I suspect the real reason your lawyers did not do either of these two things was to maintain a defensive patent portfolio. Basically someone is going to sue you for patent infringment on one of their patents (justifiably or not) so you look in your patent portfolio and come up with something to countersue for. Hopefully this is enough to make them go away.
Re:A legitimate reason for patenting the obvious (Score:2)
And it still doesn't address that patents are being given to people who did not truly invent what they now have a patent for. Patents are for novell and usefull ideas, not ones society as a whole came up with.
Could be ironic... (Score:2)
Is reasonable to think that the US Government, or parts of the legal system, have in many places such ways of collaborative work.
Now what Amazon should do is sue USPTO or US Government because this patent and maybe, just maybe, US patent system will gain a bit of common sense.
I am applying for a patent (Score:2)
An online web deiscussion system that make sfun of Companies that attempt to get patents on web technologies.
Slashdot.org will be royalty free but no one else will
Funds earned wil got to FSF and EFF
here we go again... (Score:2)
What will do Amazon with that patent? (Score:2)
For me, what it is trying to do is to avoid someone else filling it and sue them or put them out of business.
The next thing they should do is open this patent, i.e. in the way described in OpenPatents [openpatents.org].
Oh, the absurdity of it all... (Score:5, Insightful)
Their site is merely a medium to make that happen. Websites should not be patentable anymore than traditional paper (mail order) magazines. Amazon's business model relies on being the best in their business. Well, it should, but it seems Amazon doesn't want to compete on their merits. They just want to make it harder to others to compete with them by turning the business into a maze of patent law. There is nothing original about mail order and putting it on a web site does not constitute originality. Again, web sites should not be patentable. That's what copyright is for.
BTW, today in 1991, Tim Berners Lee presented the world with the first web browser. That means today is arguably the birthday of the world wide web.
Straight to the Source (Score:3, Informative)
Primary Examiner: Kincaid; Kristine
Assistant Examiner: Nguyen; Thomas T.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Perkins Coie LLP
Can't we just contact them and ask them how much they were paid to grant this crap? Seriously, maybe someone could ask them what they are thinking.
My 3 patents.. (Score:4, Funny)
"Method and procedure for the dismantling of civilized society by exclusive diversion with legistative processes" (making people so busy defending themselves against lawsuits to do anything productive)
"Method and apparatus for the production of intellectual property and information by means of the exercise of a passive or active electromechanical or electronic relay or switch causing the dissipation of energy in various ceramic, plastic, semiconductor, or organic elements, causing the semi-permanent organization of atomic or subatomic particles on a dielectric, metallic, organic, semiconductor, ceramic, or plasticine substrate, also causing the luminescence of phosphorescent or electronic optoelectrical or optoelectronic elements." (use of computer)
Patents and Copyrights (Score:2)
Now, this has interesting possibilities. (I don't mean Miss Portman, or perhaps I do...) At some point, say 10 years from now, patents will become a totally debased currency, arbitration of which the courts will at first try and then abandon as claim and counter claim come piling in. There is probably a magic ratio of junk-to-valid patents which will cause this tipping. Commercial copyright, similarly, is becoming a debased concept. I don't believe for a second that DRM can recover control of that. We are thus heading for a world where the notion of the state as the ultimate arbitrer (and thus, ultimate owner) of all intellectual property is going to vanish. Think about this for a second. The trademark in question here may nominally belong to Amazon, but it is the US government that actually gets to decide its fate.
We should welcome junk patents. They are each an indelible ratchet step on the way to full public ownership of what is, after all, our common intellectual birthright.
Bezos Patent versus First Amendment? (Score:2)
Amazon has patented spam... (Score:2)
Re:Method and system for bitching about patent law (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps we can split it though. I'll take rectangular GUI-based submit buttons, and you can have image-based submit buttons.
(But please, before you send off that reply, don't forget the 50 cent royalty in the tip jar to recieve your one-use license to click 'Submit'. This also includes 'Preview'. Thank you.)
Re:Crazy patent but not as crasy as... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm unsure whether it's more aberrant for an applicant to expect to get a patent for something like this, or for them to actually get one. With the trend, I guess it's become the latter, though with time that will become accepted as well.
Software patents (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, if you were daft enough to provide source code for your software, evil patent lawyers might be able to see which patents you are infringing, but what sort of idealistic fool would do that?