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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."

3 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Coming Soon... by shadwwulf · · Score: 4, Funny

    a patent for the act of accepting money from customers...

    The idiocy continues...

  2. Re:Prior art from the stone age. by base3 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Not that it should be patentable, but that's not what the patent is about. What it describes is a means of guessing which 9 digits are the Federal Reserve RTN by seeing which are the first 9 consecutive digits to pass the check digit test.

    A means of doing the same thing without infringing on this patent (which should never have been granted) would be to check to see which 9 digits are in a list of all known RTNs. In case Amazon was going to patent that to, mark the time of this post as prior art.

    --
    One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
  3. Well, HERE'S one patent they WON'T get . . . by nusratt · · Score: 4, Funny

    . . . because *i've* already filed for it:

    "A Novel Method Of Enhancing Consumer Privacy, By Preferentially Purchasing At Local Community Establishments, Using Uniquely Serialized Pieces Of Paper Currency Bearing Detailed Engraved Portraits Of Deceased National Leaders".

    Soon to be followed by:
    "A Method For Consumers To Alter Shopping Behavior, For The Purpose Of Undermining The Market-Strength Of Philosophically Objectionable Corporations".