The Grinch Who Patented Christmas

theodp writes "The USPTO has reversed its earlier rejection and notified Amazon that the patent application for CEO Jeff Bezos' invention, Coordinating Delivery of a Gift, has been examined and is allowed for issuance as a patent. BTW, Amazon was represented before the USPTO by Perkins Coie, who also supplied Bezos with legal muscle in his personal fight against zoning laws that threatened to curb the size of his Medina mansion (reg.) before the City of Medina eventually gave up on regulating the size of homes (reg.)."

Comments

Entrapment

[Anonymous Coward]

Seller: "Where's it going?"

Undercover patent police: "Melbourne"

Seller: "That's in Australia isn't it?"

UPP: "I'm really not sure..."

Seller: "Okay, I'll just check on the map..."

UPP: "Got you, you evil evil patent infringer."

Re:Entrapment

[ViX44]

...and out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I grabed my binoculars to see what's the matter.
A bunch of gov agents, dressed in blue and in white,
Wrangled that criminal and locked him up tight.
"What's happinging to me, what wrong did I do?"
In IP-law America, patents file you!

Re:Isn't this obvious

[servoled]

Can you prove that this has been done for years? Unfortunatley the courts have set the burden of proving obviousness so high that it becomes difficult to reject something as being obvious.

If you would like to take a crack at doing it here is basically what would be required:

1) a dated publication or with a date prior to 9/12/1997 which discloses at least part of the claimed invention.

2) one or more dated publications with dates prior to 9/12/1997 which disclose the features that are not disclosed in the first dated publication and disclose motivation to add these missing features into the system of the first publication (i.e. simply because the features may exist individuallly does not mean that it would be obvious to combine them into a single system according to the courts).

Re:Next up...

[Elektroschock]

The time is not to make fun of the patent system in general. It is the right time to call for reform in the United States. There are currently US patent reform discussions initiated by Microsofts while myriads of stupid MS lobbyists walk on the floors of the European parliament to lobby for Software patents:

* Hugo Lueders, CompTIA or Initiative for Software Choice
* Jonathan Zuck, ACT
* Simon Gentry, Campaign for Creativity
* Pleon
* DCI Group
and so on. And the more professional guys, which are also partially paid by Microsoft.

* Francisco Mingorance, Business Software Alliance
* Mark McGann, EICTA

So I recommend you to act now.

1. Help to save Europe, participate in our webdemo

2. Subscribe to the US FFII List

We do not have to complain about the US patent system, we can change it.

why pick on Amazon?

[CoughDropAddict]

I hate the patent crazyness as much as anyone. But why so many stories about Amazon's patents in particular? Amazon is a relative lightweight in the patent scene. IBM walks to the patent office with a stack of patents every single week. I'm sure you can find plenty to pick on in their applications.

Not to mention that Amazon is often on the receiving end of patent aggression. If you look at Amazon's most recent 10Q, you'll see that Amazon is currently the defendent in five patent infringement lawsuits.

Pinpoint, inc. is suing Amazon for patent infringement related to site personalization.

Soverain Software is suing Amazon for patent infringement of four of their patents, including a "Digital Sales System" and "Digital Active Advertising."

IPXL holdings is suing Amazon for infringement of a patent titled "Electronic Fund Transfer or Transaction System."

BTG International is suing Amazon for infringement of a patent titled "Attaching Navigational History Information to Universal Resource Locator Links on a World Wide Web Page."

Cendant Publishing is suing Amazon for infringement of a patent related to recommendations.

If you despise patent aggression, Amazon is not your poster child for patent abuse. Not even close. Amazon is taking a lot more than it's dishing out.

Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but of course do not speak for them.

Re:Next up...

[FLEB]

The time is not to make fun of the patent system in general. It is the right time to call for reform in the United States.

Can't we do both?