IBM Sues Amazon For Patent Infringement

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.

Comments

Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

[Aqua_boy17]

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?

Re:An old slogan comes to mind

[Halo1]

I wouldn't be surprised if the ONLY reason they used this against Amazon, is because Amazon does the same thing to others.

Then be very surprised. IBM has a long history of strong-arming other companies with its patent portfolio and extracting license money from them. In fact, Marshall Phelps (who now works for Microsoft fwiw), turned IBM's sleeping patent portfolio into a $1+ billion profit.