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Amazon Patents Getting Numbers Off a Check

Posted by timothy on from the rational-actor dept.

theodp writes "After two rejections, Amazon was granted a patent Tuesday for the Extraction of bank routing number from information entered by a user, which covers the process of obtaining a routing and checking account number from information entered by a user from the face of a check. The patent application was filed in the week preceding Amazon's Call for Patent Reform."

5 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Is Amazon Evil.. by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... or is the USPO just really stupid?

    I vote for the latter.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:Is Amazon Evil.. by Andy_R · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's worth pointing out that those two options are not mutually exclusive.

      --
      A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
  2. Re:grrrrr by Moe+Taxes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Amazon is not the bad guy. Bezos knows that software patents are out of control. He has asked for changes to this system because he knows the way it is going only companies with huge patent portfolios will be able to produce and use software. He can either play the evil game or watch his company be eaten alive by software patent holders. If you want to run a big successful company you are either filing software patents or you are failing in your responsibities. Don't blame Amazon, blame our bought and paid for congress.

    --
    It took a real world war to end the airplane's patent wars. - Fâché Rouge -
  3. hate the game, not the player by voisine · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I agree with Bezos' statements the effect of "hate the game, not the player". The patent system is a legal construct that happens to be broken. By exploiting it legally, you eventually force our inept legislature to do something to fix it. Similar to the tort reform problem, or MS security holes. If it gets exploited enough, eventaully even our elected officials won't be able to ignore it. Amazon has shown they wouldn't be adverse to a fix with their recent initiative for patent reform.

    1. Re:hate the game, not the player by databank · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, to be completely unbiased about it, you should hate the game AND the player...

      Hate the game (the patent system) because of the anarchistic mechanisms that it attempts to use to protect people's ideas.

      Hate the players for abusing the patent system.