Amazon Patents Getting Numbers Off a Check 43
theodp writes "After two rejections, Amazon was granted a patent Tuesday for the Extraction of bank routing number from information entered by a user, which covers the process of obtaining a routing and checking account number
from information entered by a user from the face of a check. The patent application was filed in the week preceding Amazon's Call for Patent Reform."
Coming Soon... (Score:4, Funny)
The idiocy continues...
What we need is... (Score:3, Funny)
Prior art from the stone age. (Score:2)
Re:Prior art from the stone age. (Score:5, Interesting)
A means of doing the same thing without infringing on this patent (which should never have been granted) would be to check to see which 9 digits are in a list of all known RTNs. In case Amazon was going to patent that to, mark the time of this post as prior art.
PAF: Extracing area code from phone numbers (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Prior art timestamps. (Score:2)
Except that prior art must be shown to exist not less than one year before the patent is applied for.
So if Amazon applies for a patent before 2005-07-06 (next year), your post can not be used as prior art.
The one-year requirement leads to rediculous situations where some immoral person scours the literature and applies for patents based on what (s)he finds, then uses the granted patent to extract royalties from the original authors.
Re:Prior art timestamps. (Score:1)
Re:Prior art timestamps. (Score:2)
Co-invention is pretty common, radio, airplanes, etc. all were invented by different people within a few years without each others' knowledge.
But you're quite right to ask the question - especially in the software field a year is plenty of time to lift an idea, implement it and file a patent application.
Re:Prior art timestamps. (Score:1)
I don't know; I am not a patent lawyer.
I just remember reading somewhere that a patent could not be applied for if the idea was published over a year before the application date, which implied to me that if the idea was published within a year, that publication could not be used as prior art.
I remember thinking at the time that someone could read a publication and immediately app
grrrrr (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I can tell, Bezos' statements can be summarized as "Don't hate the player, hate the game"--the same line that all the big players use--but it seems that AMZN in particular has gone far off the wrong end of the stupid-patent-o-meter way more than anyone else. (I have no actual data to back up this claim.)
I have heard that IBM alone files 10 patent applications a day. And yet it's Amazon that is the poster child for frivilous patents. I like to think a responsible tech industry giant like Amazon should be able to amass a defensive patent arsenal without stooping as low as they have.
Re:grrrrr (Score:2)
I've been boycotting them ever since 1-click. Stupid fscking corporate mentality...
Re:grrrrr (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:grrrrr (Score:2)
My biggest question then is, why does he enforce these patents? Most corporations patent stupid things because it gives them leverage in a legal fire fight. They don't usually pursue someone who's using the technology unless they either want to preemptively take them out, or defend against an
Re:grrrrr (Score:2)
Fiduciary responsibility. If Amazon can make a significant amount of money from licensing a patent and doesn't do it, then the shareholders have grounds for a lawsuit.
Is Amazon Evil.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I vote for the latter.
Re:Is Amazon Evil.. (Score:3, Insightful)
mouth hanging open... (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't believe this is patentable. I do this stuff in my UI code all the time. It's a basic part of the "be liberal in what you accept" philosophy. Accept whatever is easiest for the user to type (or cut and paste), then pluck out what you need.
Here's stuff I've done in programs, I'm sure anybody writing UI code has come up with this kind of stuff:
* extract USA zip code from an address by searching for numbers backwards from the end and comparing result against the USPS database
* extract dollar amounts from text by searching for numbers and dollar signs
* extract email ID's from cut/pasted or forwarded emails by searching for headers: newline or start of string, string, colon before a double newline
* extract eBay item numbers from emails based on length of digit string
* extract URLs from emails based on heuristics (there is even a perl module to do this)
Yeah, I've never had to code something to find check routing numbers, but damn, this would be the first thing I'd come up with! Tell me some identifiable property of the data, and I'll come up with a way to pluck it out. A couple regexes and a function to calculate the checksum or whatever it is.
Cripes. This is no longer funny. All self-employed programmers, start patenting your shit!!!!
I mean, your inventions!! I think Bezos has already patented defecation!!!
Well, HERE'S one patent they WON'T get . . . (Score:4, Funny)
"A Novel Method Of Enhancing Consumer Privacy, By Preferentially Purchasing At Local Community Establishments, Using Uniquely Serialized Pieces Of Paper Currency Bearing Detailed Engraved Portraits Of Deceased National Leaders".
Soon to be followed by:
"A Method For Consumers To Alter Shopping Behavior, For The Purpose Of Undermining The Market-Strength Of Philosophically Objectionable Corporations".
To the doofus who modded . . . (Score:1)
Gee, why do you suppose that timothy even published the original article on slashdot?
Hint:
"from the rational-actor-dept . . . The patent application was filed in the week preceding Amazon's Call for Patent Reform"
For the powers-of-deduction-challenged modder:
the article is of interest to the
NOW do you see why the post isn't OT?
It's cal
Amazon's version of Patent Reform (Score:1)
First, they acquire a new patent for getting people's checking account and routing numbers over the internet by having the {customer|user] enter them.
Then, they launch a call for "Patent Reform".
I'm assuming their version of patent reform would be "Everyone else has to give up their bad patents, but we get to keep them."
Re:Amazon's version of Patent Reform (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe, maybe not. Bezos' comment does sorta imply that he understands the idiocy of the situation but is trying to "fight it within the system" by forcing it to an absurd extreme. There is precedent for this approach.
OTOH, it's entirely possible that his understanding is that absurdities like this will have the effect of eliminating all those pesky little competitors, while lea
Do it first (Score:2, Flamebait)
Then if you've accidentally infringed on someone else's silly patent, you can trade rights instead of having to cough up money.
IMNSHO, software patents should be eliminated entirely, and copyrights should only cover published works (i.e. source - you know, like books for which cop
Re:Do it first (Score:2)
This is not necessarily a software patent. It's a process patent. In theory, they could stop you from performing the same process whether you're using a keyboard or doing it by hand.
Re:Do it first (Score:2)
I'd be willing to go as far as saying there shouldn't be process patents. Patents were intended to give innovators a limited monopoly for innovations. The purpose being to encourage research. Processes need no such artificial support. Businesses will create processes that improve their margin automatically without such go
March 2 2000? (Score:2, Informative)
I ask because I -swear- that in the mid-90's I was able to use the exact same information to register an account on AOL. Perhaps AOL didn't use the information for -electronic- withdrawal but just printed checks using the info. If so, then ok, there are some differences but seriously not enough to make this valid.
hate the game, not the player (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:hate the game, not the player (Score:2, Insightful)
Hate the game (the patent system) because of the anarchistic mechanisms that it attempts to use to protect people's ideas.
Hate the players for abusing the patent system.
Idiocity (Score:1)
This software patent crap is absolutely idiotic!
I shouldn't be so facetious. It is coming to that. That day will arrive and soon. It is surprising that someone hasn't thought of this and tried it already.
"After Two Rejections" (Score:2)
Re:"After Two Rejections" (Score:1)
Actually, it was probably the same examiner who issed the two rejections and then allowed the patent.
99% of claims in patent applications are initally rejected. I would say %80 of all patent application have two seperate rejections, and its not uncommon to see up to six rejections, over the course of two or three years, for a single application. Basically, what happens is a patent applicatio
Scope of a patent is determined by its claim (Score:1)
In law, the patent title has no effect on the scope of a patent. Instead, the scope of a patent is determined by its claims (read in light of the specification).
In this case, the title of Amazon's patent is "Extraction of bank routing number from information entered
I found prior art! (Score:4, Funny)
Hello,
Please allow me to introduce my self. I am Natanba Colunga, and my husband was until recently the president of the Central African Republic...