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Amazon Releases 1-Click Patent Sequel
theodp writes "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is seeking a patent for coordinating the delivery of a gift. The invention was bundled with the 1-Click claims in this 1998 EPO filing, but its USPTO filing was allowed to lapse. Amazon refiled with the USPTO in July, 2002--a few months after settling the BN 1-Click lawsuit." Update: 12/13 05:35 GMT by T : Ben Silverman writes "Please note that Shel Kaphan is no longer the CTO of Amazon.com and has not been with the company for over three years. I apologize for any inconvience this has caused Mr. Kaphan and to readers for the error. Mr. Kaphan pointed out my error in an email this evening." (Kaphan is identified as CTO in the linked NY Post story.)
2. Change in customer info privacy policy
And the straw that broke the camel's back...
3. Charging existing customers higher prices than prospective new customers.
3a. After getting caught at (3) once, and apologizing for it, doing it again.
We used to spend quite a few bucks at Amazon. Haven't bought anything there in quite some time. Have no plans to buy there again.
good, elegant solutions to things like 1-click ordering can be more difficult to produce than it may first appear (emphasis mine)
This is the problem. You're not supposed to get a patent on something because it's hard to make, you're supposed to get a patent on it because it's hard to discover.
Both the 1-click and this are both simple excercises in using technology developed by others to do exactly what the technology was designed for.
Cookies were invented by Netscape. They store information on the client's computer. Basically, Amazon got a patent on using cookies to store information.
Bezos' defense is that "it took them lots of work to make".. well, that's what copyright is for.
Oddly, I wrote the first draft of what became that patent filing at Jeff's behest when I worked at Amazon.com from 1996 to 1997. Can't even recall why I was asked, but following the form of patent applications, I wrote out the ideas. Since I was an employee and not the inventor, I signed over all my rights. I was also under trade secrets restrictions because of my employment agreement.
I always wondered what happened to that patent, and lo and behold, here it is! It's certainly nostagia for me, but I was a pretty naive guy about patents in those days, and I wrote the draft not as a lawyer, but just as a technical guy who understand the mechanisms.
I have a very different opinion of things today, although it was clear at the time I wrote it that what Jeff had come up with was, in fact, unique, original, and significant under the way the law is still interpreted.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
So during the entire history of mail order since telephones were invented, a company finding that the delivery address given was incomplete and calling either the sender or the receiver to double-check or get directions has never occured and the process is therefore ingenious and patentable? This is stupid beyond the pale. And what's worse is they'll probably win simply because nobody ever thought to document doing something so basic.
Dyolf Knip