Amazon Sued Over Recommendation Patent 283
PaschalNee writes "Cendant is suing Amazon for their recommendation patent saying it infringes on a "System and Method for Providing Recommendation of Goods or Services Based on Recorded Purchasing History" patent they own. "
I See Prior art. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:3, Insightful)
It would have ran out 100 years ago
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2, Interesting)
I really hope so. I've never heard anything conclusive, though.
Well, that depends (Score:2)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:3, Insightful)
You have to pick which type of big government you want, but that would be nuance. As we all know, nuance is as evil as "big government" liberals.
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:4, Insightful)
It irritates me when people make these comparisons.
At one time, the republican party DID stand for shrinking government, fiscal conservatism, and a host of other things. Guess what? At one time, all the racists were democrats. Guess what? Pointing out that fact about the democratic party now is nonsense. Why? Because all the racists swung into the republican party for myriad reasons. Guess what? Fiscal conservatism seems to have swung to the democrats as the last 24 years should attest.
You can't look at these stupid labels and say "well, this person or group must then stand for x, y, and z". It doesn't work like that anymore. There are too many politicians passing around too much disinformation and blurring all sorts of lines to get as much support from the electorate as possible. There's no real government anymore, it's just a bunch of power mad people desperately trying to take things over and preserve their own hides.
Saddest part of it all? Nobody gives a fuck and they keep voting against those horrible "lefties" or those knuckle-dragging "conservatives" anyway. If people stood the fuck back for five goddamn minutes and actually looked intelligently at who they were voting for, they'd be absolutely disgusted.
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm still not totally sure why we need new laws to make copyright protection systems illegal to bypass, or to make the sale of machines which have the soul purpose of copyright infringement illegal.
After all if you write something and sign it at the bottom, if someone modifies that signature, it's fraud, and selling something to someone knowing there going to commit a crime with it is conspiricy to commit that crime.
Why did they need a new law?
Why do they press for new laws, is it impossible to simply relate modern practicaces to those which have been going on for hundreds of years, or do they want a clean slate, no case history so they can fight the same battles all over again?
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2, Insightful)
Richard Feynman in his Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman tells of his dismissive disbelief at a Los Alamos bureaucrat asking for nuclear power patent suggestions, which were as easy as just taking any well-known device and upgrading it to work with nuclear power. Feynman though he proved his point by listing several totally obvious examples (atomic airplanes, atomic submarines, atomic automobiles, etc.) and was surprised much later when the bureaucrat told him that on
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2)
Remember, Here at the USPTO we grant patents without predjudice to trifling things like originality, prior art, or indeed patentability itself!
Have a very merry, litigous season!
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've gone to the "usual" bar, and many times, the bartender tells me, "We just got this ____ in. You usually drink ____, but I think you'll like this one."
Same with the local library. I go there to pick up some books I've reserved online, and the librarian says, "Oh, I see you're reading a lot of ____. Have you read any ___? I think you'd enjoy it."
That's all this stupid thing is on Amazon or the idoits that are suing them.
It's really sad.
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:2)
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:3, Informative)
Sears isn't prior art for a couple reasons:
Re:I See Prior art. (Score:3, Interesting)
Early 1900s hardware store
Shopper: *Buying some cast iron pipe for plumbing*
Shopkeep: Ah, I see you are buying some cast iron pipe for plumbing, would you also like a ball of twine and some lead to melt down and form the connections?
Shopper: Sure, thanks.
Shopkeep: You're welcome, that lead gets pretty hot when you make the connections, would you like some gloves to protect your hands too?
Shopper: Yeh, that sounds like a good idea.
Shopkeep: And just in case you get a little parc
PRIOR ART, WITH FRIES (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, he wasn;t allowed to ask me 'the usual' which I have ordered 23590285094 times in my life at that place, because some people are using anticompetative measures to throw companies off with patents.
I have no
If you infringe this patent... (Score:5, Funny)
If you infringe this patent you may also infringe...
---
I type this every time.
Re:If you infringe this patent... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If you infringe this patent... (Score:2)
Re:If you infringe this patent... (Score:2)
Based on this query you may be interested in:
Re:If you infringe this patent... (Score:2)
Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
Frivolous (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, the most obvious obstacle to this... (Score:4, Insightful)
*sigh* some people...
Re:Well, the most obvious obstacle to this... (Score:2)
Easy enough solution for that - simply keep makign adjustments and rolling new ideas into the base patent as you think of them. Doing this it is fairly easy to keep a patent in "pending" mode for years on end. Once things are actually underway and you have someone to sue, stop the prolonging, let the patent be accepted, and begin litigation. This has effectively been done, although admittedly not over a 25 year time frame (more in the 5-10 year range)
Re:Well, the most obvious obstacle to this... (Score:2)
Re:Well, the most obvious obstacle to this... (Score:2)
Technically that is enough reason to not grant a patent. There's just something about adding "online" to a patent that throws common sense out the window.
Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:5, Interesting)
If it was anyone else being sued, I'd think this is getting really stupid. I mean, why not patent line-ups? Where does this crap end?
Re:Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:2)
Businesses will lose millions more than patents will bring in. When that happens, patents will disappear quicker than a lobbyist can count to $100,000.-
Re:Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:2)
Personally I'd love to see balancing laws for the courts -> if you are paying $100,000 for lawyers, you should be able to pay that for the other side as well so that personal / corporate wealth isn't a legal factor any more.
And if the lawsuit is frivalous, judges should be afraid to ram punitive damages down the throat of the litigious bastard, and the lawyer for bringing such a frivilous case to the courts in the first place.
Re:Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:2)
Oh yes. My favorite quote is what he said when asked his opinion about civilization in the West:
``I think it would be a good idea.''
Forget revenge and irony. (Score:3, Interesting)
Stories like these send investors a clear message about investing money in the software industry:
RUNAWAY PATENT SYSTEM = LEGAL LIABILITY FOR THEIR INVESTMENTS = BIG RISK
Whether that could translate into patent reform that aims to protect the little guy as much as it protects the big guy is another story. I would hope investors would recogniz
Re:Good! Bittter sweet irony. (Score:5, Insightful)
Cheers,
Craig
Ordinarily I would object to this kind of patent. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ordinarily I would object to this kind of paten (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ordinarily I would object to this kind of paten (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, I don't really beleive it's the laws that need overhauled but the patent system in general. Patents (or atleast the concept of) were at one time a good thing. However, these tools working in the patent system are clueless. They seem to be forgetting two very important terms when it comes to granting pattents. "Unique" and "non-obvious". (I'm sure we can slip 'not overly broad' in there somewhere too).
Recommendin
Re:Ordinarily I would object to this kind of paten (Score:2, Insightful)
The moral of the story is to NEVER support lawsuits like this. Never.. Ever..
Seriously...
Re:Ordinarily I would object to this kind of paten (Score:2)
Indeed - likewise he who lives by the pen, he who lives by the word processor, he who who lives by the fax machine all shall die by the sword. Only he who lives by the tank shall remain immune.
Talked about this yesterday. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Talked about this yesterday. (Score:2)
Re:Talked about this yesterday. (Score:2)
Re:Talked about this yesterday. (Score:2)
True, but I wonder why they didn't go after the mid-sized companies without lawyers [nukees.com]... Although I guess they could be trying for the "big enough that they'll spare some spare change to get rid of us" factor. After all, Amazon is actually returning a profit these days, right?
Patent lawsuits (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Patent lawsuits (Score:2)
Unfortunately that is not only how patent law is written, it seems to have been done on purpose. It is true that even if you can absolutely prove without a doubt (don't ask me how) you had absolutely no knowledge of me, my patent, or my patented invention, yet managed to coincidentally come up with something infringing on said patent, you are still infringing on my patent.
So much for that idea (Score:3, Funny)
Well... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Sue me for breathing... (Score:2, Funny)
Bezos Told You So... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's what publishing is for (Score:2, Insightful)
Prior art is the easiest way to fight a patent.
Re:That's what publishing is for (Score:5, Informative)
That is just one of the ways in which the current patent system is broken - especially for software.
This patent is yet another example of patenting something that retailers have done for 100 years (Sears Catalog customized by past orders) - "but do it on the internet!"
Re:That's what publishing is for (Score:2)
Microsoft is also appealing the Eolas patent, claiming that the original trial didn't give proper weight to the prior art.
Re:Bezos Told You So... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bezos Told You So... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, Amazon must have the Bush Administration's official dictionary. They are using the same definition of defense!
These guys had better watch out (Score:2, Redundant)
Of course, then I'll probably get sued by someone with a patent for "Suing people for patent infringement on your patent on suing patent holders for infringing on your patent by registering their patent."
SQL is dangerous (Score:3, Funny)
Your secret formula is now exposed. Take that!
Re:SQL is dangerous (Score:2)
SELECT c.prod_name, c.prod_num FROM completed_orders c, temp_order t WHERE t.prod_num IN c.prod_num ORDER BY c.prod_num
But my SQL is a bit rusty
Re:SQL is dangerous (Score:2)
SELECT TOP 10 count(c.order_id) as ordercount,
c.prod_num
FROM completed_orders c
INNER JOIN temp_order on t.prod_num = c.prod_num
GROUP BY c.prod_num
ORDER BY count(c.order_id) desc
Re:SQL is dangerous (Score:2)
I wouldnt want a sql job either.. I had a single semester of sql in college and that was enough for me. But either way, I bow to your superior SQL skills...
then again, TOP doesnt exist in Oracle, AFAIK... which is all I have ever used (other than doing very basic stuff with postgres...)
Re:SQL is dangerous (Score:2)
Dunno the ORACLE syntax - I'm working with Sybase which would be SET ROWCOUNT 10 SELECT...
In SQL Server you use the TOP keyword.
Re:SQL is dangerous (Score:2)
3D Patent Info (Score:5, Informative)
6:04-cv-00397-LED
Hewlett-Packard Co
Dell Computer Corporation
Gateway Inc
International Business Machines Corp
Toshiba America Inc
Sony Corporation
Acer Inc
MPC Computers LLC
Systemax, Inc
Fujitsu America, Inc
Micro Electronics Corp
Matsushita Electric Corporation of America
Averatec, Inc
Polywell Company, Inc
Sharp Electronics Corporation
Twinhead Corp
Uniwill Computer International Corp
JVC Americas Corporation
Acer America Corporation
Micro Electronics Inc.
Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation
Dell, Inc
6:04-cv-00398-LED
Electronic Arts, Inc.
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Activision Inc
Atari, Inc.
THQ, Inc.
Vivendi Universal Games, Inc.
Sega of American Inc.
Square Enix, Inc.
Tecmo, Inc.
Lucasarts Entertainment Co
Namco Hometek, Inc.
Ubisoft, Inc.
6:04-cv-00399-LED
Sony Corporation of America
Microsoft Corporation
Nintendo of America, Inc.
Re:3D Patent Info (Score:3, Insightful)
Prior Art (Score:3, Insightful)
Patent examiners are supposed to be SMART people, but they actually have no common horse sense...
Off-topic: Amazon introduces queuing service (Score:2, Informative)
Speaking of Amazon, yesterday they unveiled their new Simple Queuing Service [amazon.com], their latest foray into web services [amazon.com]. They're exposing some of their infrastructure in order to let you share data between distributed components. Free for the time being, though limited in terms of how much data you can queue at once.
Of course, someone will probably sue them over this, too.
Eric
William Shatner boldly goes like no man has gone before [ericgiguere.com]
Great Timing. (Score:5, Funny)
USPTO Link (Score:2, Interesting)
Just how broad is the patent? (Score:3, Insightful)
As much as Amazon might deserve patent karma, this isn't it. This is quite definitely as opposite as you can get from 'non-obvious', even more so then one-click. One click at least required the new technology (cookies); buying recommendations have been going on as long as there have been sales people. 'You know, other people that bought Oggs-brand Wheel(TM) also bought Oggs-brand Club(TM).'
HEY - I have SO got this sorted. (Score:3, Funny)
"A method of attempted or actual revenue generation based on claiming damages for patent infringement from other parties, based on the ownership (or acting on behalf of the owner) of patents pertaining to actions or concepts that any sane person would consider blindigly obvious and not worthy of being covered by a patent."
These guys owe me aplenty!
patent (Score:5, Insightful)
Such systems had been in use and published for several years before the patent was filed, so this shouldn't stand. But, given Amazon's history with stupid patents, one can only hope that both Amazon and Cendant lose lots of money in the legal fight.
Cendant only have 3 patents... (Score:3, Informative)
All relating to the same thing just about
PAT. NO. Title 1 6,782,370 Full-Text System and method for providing recommendation of goods or services based on recorded purchasing history
2 6,076,070 Full-Text Apparatus and method for on-line price comparison of competitor's goods and/or services over a computer network
3 6,035,288 Full-Text Interactive computer-implemented system and method for negotiating sale of goods and/or services
All three [uspto.gov]
Someone should sue the patent office (Score:2, Interesting)
The net effect of this would be to overturn the "presumption of validity" on prior-art challenges.
The real reason is... (Score:2)
Here is the link to the patent (Score:2, Informative)
Pardon, but the infringed on my patent (Score:3, Funny)
They will hear from my lawyer shortly.
Patent for Filing Software Patents (Score:2)
From Amazon--- (Score:3, Funny)
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Hm... have a time limit on suing for infringement (Score:2)
Maybe one way to stop spurious claims is to rule that in order to claim for infringment you must file your claim within 6 months of becomming aware of a potential infringement or lose all ability to claim damages from the infringing company/organisation/individual....
legal tactic hereto know as... (Score:2)
And the winner is.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Amazon's technology is cited in the application! (Score:5, Informative)
But wait it gets better... reading further in the PR blurb, we see that their group filtering technology was based on an existing product, called Grouplens [grouplens.org]. I assume that this is the same kind of functionality that Cendant is claiming as their own work; if so, surely Grouplens must have something to say as far as prior art goes...
Jay (=
I'm going to get myself sued! (Score:2, Funny)
So guys, I see you read Slashdot. I saw some really leet gear on this one website you might like.
SHIT! I can already see the lawyers on the horizon!
Defeating the Overall Objective of IP Protections (Score:3, Insightful)
Pardon my naivete, but aren't all of these patents and intellectual property law protections supposed to encourage innovation and overall provide maximum benefit to society?
I see a great deal of innovation that is unprotected (open source) that, precisely because it is so unencumbered, serves to invite more and more rapid innovations built upon it.
Crazy.
The Wretched Extreme (Score:2)
Of course, in this country that might mean Congress extends them another 150 years, makes violating a patent a felony, tasks Homeland Security with enforcing patent rights, and invades Japan for threatening to duplicate one-click online shopping.
I'm going to patent having sex to make babies (Score:3, Interesting)
Jesus fucking Christ, where will this fucking bullshit end? When some dickwad patents methods of political manipulation and then sues whichever party is in power as owing him money?
I think I'm going to test the fucking patent system. I'm going to patent taking a dump and see if it goes through. Given the current level of crap, it might very well do so.
*Blindness* (Score:2)
If they outlaw patents... (Score:2)
Um, wait, that was obvious, right?
NBC Tried (Score:3, Informative)
When Letterman switched networks the NBC tried to prevent him from using top ten lists.
They were not successful.
SteveM
Re:Letterman to be sued next for Top 10 List? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:People who infringe this patent (Score:2)
"People who infringed this patent also infringed..."
Re:Someone Should find Prior Art (Score:2)
Does that count?
Re:Obligatory prior art? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why bother... (Score:2)
Please pay all your money to me and my evil minions immediately.(Oh and point me in the direction of a spell checker)
So much tapioca and nothign else? (Score:2)
Lock nit cup if your nut assure.