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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.

3 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Re:An old slogan comes to mind by Shados · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Indeed. Actualy, considering IBM's track record, which while not perfect, is not quit in line with a patent troll...I wouldn't be surprised if the ONLY reason they used this against Amazon, is because Amazon does the same thing to others.

  2. Re:Reminded of a story by _|()|\| · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This Forbes article is more in line with my recollection of the story. IBM approached Sun with a handful of bogus patents, which Sun's engineers handily debunked. However, rather than risk IBM digging through its portfolio for actually infringed patents, Sun coughed up the protection fee.

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

    People are thinking that IBM bought these patents or just went fishing. I'm sure these patents are from the IBM-Sears joint Prodigy service. Prodigy really was ahead of its time in many of its concepts.