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IBM Sues Amazon For Patent Infringement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the who-are-the-good-guys-again? dept.

A large number of readers wrote in about IBM suing Amazon over commerce patents. The Ars Technica coverage linked is one of the few sources that goes beyond the brief AP or Reuters stories that everyone is running. Here is IBM's press release. Some of the patents in question go back to the 80s and they do seem to pretty much wrap up the idea of online commerce, if they prove valid. IBM says many others are licensing the patents but Amazon won't give them the time of day on the subject.

9 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Oops, the beast escaped by ClosedSource · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like the monopoly-conviction-avoiding-patent-hoarding beast that is the true soul of IBM managed to escape for a few moments. I'm sure he will be back in his cage before the new IBM true-believers notice him.

  2. And then there's... by HiggsBison · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doesn't SCO or somebody have it locked up with:
    "A Method for Doing Stuff with Things" and
    "A Method for Doing Stuff with Things Involving a Computing Device"?

    --
    My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
    1. Re:And then there's... by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ha! I own "A Method for Doing Stuff with Things... On the Internet!"

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    2. Re:And then there's... by networkBoy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well I have doing things with stuff on tubes.
      So there!
      -nB

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    3. Re:And then there's... by Ubergrendle · · Score: 2, Funny

      I regret to inform you that your patent "A Method for Doing Stuff with Things" (#52418761) is a derivative of my patent "Doing Stuff" (#000002), and as such the subjects you to a usage fee. Please contact my attorneys to negotiate the terms of your personal bankruptcy.

      --
      John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
  3. Re:A cross-licence thing ? by psykocrime · · Score: 3, Funny
    This will be settled when Amazon agrees to ditch all their Sun servers and put in an IBM zSeries server or 10, move all their middleware to WebSphere, move to Rational development tools, install DB/2, implement a full-suite of Tivoli products and deploy Lotus collaboration tools.


    It would have been cheaper for Amazon to just license the patents.

    --
    // TODO: Insert Cool Sig
  4. Screw it, I'm going Amish by dapsychous · · Score: 1, Funny

    Seriously, this patent shit has gotten completely out of control. I understand that people want to keep other people from stealing their ideas and profiting on them, but patenting a concept? Christ! Can I go ahead and put a patent on a virtually representing people or places over electronic media for communication purposes? Just because it's not mainstream now, doesn't mean it won't completely fuel commerce in 10-20 years. Would it make more sense for a patent to last 2 years: Just enough time to get a product to market first? This would still stifle industrial espionage without killing commerce 10-15 years down the road.

    What exactly does IBM hope to accomplish with this? I can't think of any motivation besides milking Amazon for every penny.

  5. Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. by RevMike · · Score: 3, Funny

    If IBM holds a patent for 'Posting messages to an interactive service' there may well be. I mean, some of these are pretty broad:

    US 5,796,967 - Presenting Applications in an Interactive Service.
    US 5,442,771 - Storing Data in an Interactive Network.
    US 7,072,849 - Presenting Advertising in an Interactive Service.
    US 5,446,891 - Adjusting Hypertext Links with Weighted User Goals and Activities.
    US 5,319,542 - Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalogue.

    Without reading the actual applications, it sounds to me like that covers like 99% of anyone selling or storing anything on-line. I mean, WTF? Storing data in an interactive network? How broad is that net?

    And I'm absolutely sure that there is no point in reading the applications. After all, there is no possible way that the actual claims might be substantially more specific and narrow.

    The other day I flipped through the card catalog at my local library. In a few hours I absorbed a subtantial fraction of Western culture and learning.

  6. Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. by Splab · · Score: 2, Funny

    Screw that, what is a library?