Amazon Awarded Cookie Patent
theodp writes "On Tuesday, the USPTO granted Amazon.com a patent for the Use of browser cookies to store structured data, which covers the storing of data structures and non-character data within browser cookies. In a February SEC filing (pdf), Amazon reiterated that they expect that they may license certain patents to third parties in the future."
So the patent looks silly on the face, but the opening claims are easy to work around and make it hard for them to sue:
a method of incorporating at least one data structure from the database into a browser cookie to reduce accesses to the database
Okay, the stuff I'm storing in the cookie isn't the same as a structure in my database. FOAD. You think it is? I say it is half a structure from my database. Or one item from each of five structures in my database.
They could drown you in lawsuits, but they didn't need a patent to do that anyway.
.sig Karma out the wazoo, better to spend points elsewhere if this is above 2 or below 0