Amazon's Winding Course Through the Patent Jungle

ericjones12398 writes "On one hand, Amazon is not exactly short on patents themselves. The 'non-exhaustive list' on the company's site is a tidy little bundle of e-commerce IP, with a few questionable software patents — including a 1-click buying method, a Lodsys-baiting in-app purchasing method and a social networking patent, all of which have achieved a somewhat notorious reputation. Indeed, the last fiscal year was as significant for Amazon's litigation as for the company's behind-closed-doors acquisitions."

One Click

[eWarz]

IIRC Amazon has successfully sued (and won) over the one click patent in the past. I could be wrong though.

Re:

[Kenja]

I know of (and can find no) instance where Amazon one-click went to court. It has however been settled out of court many times and licensed to more or less all takers.

Re:Fuck Amazon

[Kenja]

Think you need this... [amazon.com]

Re:

[evafan76]

You sir, made me spray Mountain Dew through my nose which ruined my keyboard... I hope you're happy...

Cliffhanger

[ceoyoyo]

And on the other hand?

*Skims the article*

Oh, the "other hand" seems to be talking about patents the author thinks Amazon would like to have. So not really the other hand at all.

I'm not going to comment on whether Internet journalism has decreased the quality of information in news articles, but it certainly seems to have decreased the quality of writing.

Re:Cliffhanger

[postbigbang]

Blogs != journalism.

There is Internet journalism, it is rare today, and some of it can be found on blogs. But the intersection of sets of journalism and blogs produces a small number at best.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

I agree with you, but a great many people, including a LOT here on Slashdot, believe that "citizen journalism" i.e. blogs, ARE journalism and that traditional journalism should wither and die.

Re:Cliffhanger

[postbigbang]

Journalists have done little to dispel the notion. Bloggers, OTOH, have done much to try to make themselves look like journalists. Often both sides succumb to their own bias, repeat memes as fact, and believe that they're somehow at war with a real or imagined foe. The corporate pressure to ally themselves with other corporate clients also instills a discipline onto the output of journalists, especially freelancers, by purchase of articles that when added together, ally a bias towards the publisher's customers. Truly free and unbiased journalism and research is wickedly difficult to come by these days.

IBM

[Anonymous Coward]

IBM has ~35,000 patents. Amazon is just a small fish.

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

IBM has ~35,000 patents.

Am I really the only one who sees this as a totally absurd number for any company? This should even be a big number for an entire country when it includes all the patents since they were introduced centuries ago.