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FFII vs. Amazon Gift Ordering Patent
Elektroschock writes "The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure fights in court against Amazon.com's Gift ordering patent. It is about ordering gifts via email and phone communication. Amazon's gift ordering patent is seen as a danger for webdesigners and E-Commerce in Europe. It is derived from the well-known Amazon.com's 1-click patent. The flowers distributor Fleurop and Germany's Computer Acience Association "Gesellschaft fur Informatik" untertake similar legal action against Amazon's trivial patent. FFII's Hartmut Pilch said the fight against patents was not over. It is a cheap opportunity to get some exercise in patent litigation."
This would be true IF people were patenting anything new, but usually in these cases they aren't: they're patenting something people have been doing for ages but haven't patented because nobody has ever really seen the point in doing it (strange as it may seem, some people actually don't mind others using their ideas - they actually prefer to build a reputation or business based on doing things well rather than suing the hell out of anyone else who tries the same thing). Or they are patenting a trivial modification to something eveyone has been doing for ages. Or they are patenting something that has been done by hand and they're automating it. And even in situations where they might, perhaps, maybe have lined up more than two braincells and come up with something novel, the patent applications are so unbelivably broad, so uttely vague and mebulous, that once granted they can effectively land-grab a wide range of things as opposed to the tiny little idea they patented.