Netflix Granted Patent on DVD Subscription Rentals

A few folks noted a new patent showing up from netflix. They apparently now have a patent on their model of subscribing to rentals- where instead of being charged per disc, you are charged a monthly fee and can keep the rentals indefinitely without late fees. You can patent anything! Get on the bus!

Comments

Other patents...

[ChaoticChaos]

They've also got a patent on not being able to find my DVDs for at least a week and a half after I send them back.

Re:Other patents...

[sql*kitten]

They've also got a patent on not being able to find my DVDs for at least a week and a half after I send them back.

Funny, dvdsontap.com did the same thing to me, claimed to have received back an empty case. I've taken to videoing myself putting the DVDs back in the cases and sealing it in the envelope, with my digital camera.

Re:Other patents...

[intermodal]

if you read later in the article, you may notice a problem as I patented a method for stepping onto a motorized vehicle designed for conveying pay-per-customer passengers to pre-designated areas without appointments...so everyone who "got on the bus", please send $1,000,000 to me ASAP or you'll hear from my personnel who can say IAAL (without the N like the rest of us)

Re:Other patents...

[theonetruekeebler]

[N]etflix isn't all good, but they are still a step up from the alternatives.

Now that a patent has been issued, what alternatives?

Ah well...

[mhore]

if they hadn't done it, Wal-mart would have.

Mike.

Re:Ah well...

[L. VeGas]

Wal-mart doesn't care. They just patented a system of placing items in a large building that has wrinkled, lonely people at the doors and pizza-faced teenagers at cash registers. This combination has the remarkable ability to attract large-rumped 35 year-olds to buy Pringles and t-shirts.

Re:Ah well...

[FroMan]

[scene] US patent office reception desk. A woman dressed in business attire sitting behind the desk is intently looking at a page, picks up another page and glances back and forth between the two. A particularly nerdy fellow with a bow tie and pocket protector walks in.

USPTO-Woman: Yes, can I help you?

Nerdy Guy: Yeah, I here have a patent on a particularly interesting formula of hyper-glasniac-poatable freagle-snaks. It will totally revolutionize the world, bring world peace, end hunger, and raise the poor up to be equal contributors to society.

USPTO-W: Interesting. Please put your money into the slot and we'll let you know after our analysis if this makes it past our highly trained team of patent reviewers.
NG: Thank you very much madam.

[scene] Nerdy Guy walks off stage and woman sits back down behind the desk. Camera goes over her shoulder to view what she is reviewing. In one hand is a patent application and in the other she shuffles through a stack of paper that has complete gibberish and brown smudges on it. Once that stack of paper is finished she stamps the patent application as approved andstands up and walks to a door.

[scene change] This room has a number of men in white lab coats watching over roughly 30 monkeys hanging from the ceiling and climbing over chairs. Most are throwing crap around at each other and the abandoned typewriters and the men in lab coats. Goatse happen to be handing from the walls also. USPTO-Woman walks in one of the doors.

USPTO-W: So. How are the researchers doing today? I've been reviewing a number of applications today and have not found any exact matches, so all applications have been approved since we didn't find any prior art.

Re:Ah well...

[Speare]

Checking stacked negatives. PARITY ERROR: No... If i didnt not like netfix before now i think they are bastards.

Are they bastards or not?

Patent

[jrmann1999]

I claim the patent on short articles devoid of detail, royalties must commence immediately.

Hmmm

[devnull17]

You can patent anything! Get on the bus!

Better do it fast, before someone patents the bus.

Re:Hmmm

[jared_hanson]

The patent for the bus is rendered useless since I just patented getting on the bus.

i wished we had closed the patent office in 1899

[stonebeat.org]

"In 1899, Charles Duell, the director of the US Patent Office, suggested that the government close the office because everything that could be invented had been invented."

omg!

[CowBovNeal]

somebody actually beat amazon.com to a patent?!

I bet there's an earthquake occuring somewhere.

Re:Walmart... haha!

[bigpat]

"A lack of competition is ALWAYS bad for the consumer. In the end, it's not WalMart who's getting screwed, it's you."

Oh Not so! I can't imagine anyone would have thought of this particular method of renting DVDs unless someone at Netflix had shown us the way. That is precisely the intent of patent law, to bring innovation to the light of day so that we may all benefit in the future when the patent expires. Imagine if Netflix hadn't been able to patent this novel business method... they probably would have just decided to sell cabbages by the side of the road or something rather than share their secret. So none of us would have benefited from this "innovation" and we might have spent thousands of years before someone of similar intellect discovered this unique way to rent DVDs! ;)

Re:PATENT SOURCE

[dmayle]

You think you jest... Here in France, the drive-thru didn't exist before McDonalds came, so they called it a "McDrive" and trademarked the name...

Re:Other patents...german bread

[Anonymous Coward]

Start reporting them as stollen. ..........How is german bread going to help? If you start telling people that their DVDs have turned into german bread, they'll think you're mad.

Re:You forgot to log off and change your id...

[TotallyUseless]

That is the funniest thing i have seen on here all day

Re:Other patents...german bread

[Lonath]

Start reporting them as stollen. ..........How is german bread going to help?

Oh, you silly grammer Nazi, you.