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USPTO Examiner Rejected 1-Click Claims As "Obvious"
theodp writes "Faced with a duly unimpressed USPTO examiner who rejected its new 1-Click patent claims as 'obvious' and 'old and well known,' Amazon has taken the unusual step of requesting an Oral Appeal to plead its case. And in what might be interpreted by some as an old-fashioned stalling tactic, the e-tailer has also canceled and refiled its 1-Click claims in a continuation application. As it touted the novelty of 1-Click to Congress last spring, Amazon kept the examiner's rejection under its hat, insisting that 'still no [1-Click] prior art has surfaced.' The Judiciary Committee hearing this testimony included Rick Boucher (VA) and Howard Berman (CA), both recipients of campaign contributions from a PAC funded by 1-Click inventor Jeff Bezos, other Amazon execs, and their families."
Probably 99% of patents where computers do work that could be done tediously and manually should be shot down.
Back in '95 or '96. We all thought it was so plainly obvious. In fact, the key thing that makes one-click shopping possible, the browser cookie, was put into the browser specifically for the purpose of associating a browser/session with stored data on the back end (payment/shipping details, purchase list.) The reason nobody did it is because engineers thought it was a BAD IDEA. Forcing people to enter their credit card and billing address details was a form of SECURITY. Being able to purchase things with one click was just too easy. Someone could come up to your computer and ring up a bunch of charges. Keeping payment details for thousands of customers on your computer was deemed too large a risk. It wasn't until the Marketeers at Amazon thought this was a good idea that it came about.
However, I think the fact that the cookie support was already in the browser is proof that the claims of the patent were obvious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_Crisis .. this game is from 1993, and you can buy in-game things with only one click.
DONE
Mostly correct and I am glad someone said it, but ... minor point
It would be more interesting to find that they were given a divisional; implying validity.
Actually a divisional (aka a restriction requirement) says absolutely nothing about validity. What it says is you have a lot of claims in your application and the Examiner isn't going to be bothered to look at all of them. Split the application into multiple applications (so the Examiner gets more points, and the PTO more money) and then they'll look at the claims.
Yes, pretty much everything gets a 103 (obvious) rejection. Sometimes this only means your Examiner put all your key words into a search engine and cited 5 unrelated pieces of prior art against you (i.e. the lazy Examiner). Sometimes, the 103 is well done. Merely telling me you have a 103 rejection tells me little.
A continuation isn't a stalling tactic. It is a way to get better claims with the same filing date as the original, but after getting a look at the cited prior art. Perfectly normal. In fact, you often use a continuation with a "bird in the hand" strategy. You take the claims the Examiner allows in the parent application (which then issue as a patent), and then continue to argue the unallowed claims in the continuation. There is no stalling. Actually, a continuation is quicker than an appeal.
I am glad to see an Examiner taking Official Notice. They do it rarely and even more rarely do it correctly. There is a correct way to take Official Notice and so few Examiner's follow it.
Also the Oral Hearing in the Appeal is unusual, but something they are allowed by right. What is usual is waiving that right and just not showing up. But if Amazon has DC based attorneys, the PTO is just down the road.
One-click has been around as long as bartenders have been extending credit to known customers, but I suppose you can't see prior art rising when its obscured by a head of foam.
Davis http://davis.foulger.net
Patents exist so investition in research and development can be reimbused
no they exist (at least under the american system) primerally to discourage trade secrets. You give your invention to the public in exchange for getting a time limited (and unlike copyrights patent time limits havn't exactly spiraled out of control) monopoly on the invention. Whether your idea is the result of years of R&D or a stroke of genius isn't really relavent.
sadly the system has been abused in a number of ways
1: obviousness: many patents give soloutions that would be obvious when presented with the problem. This means that next time someone runs into that problem they either have to pay the patent holder a license fee (if the patent holder will even accept one), take the legal risk of ignoring the patent or try and find a less obvious (and possiblly less efficiant) soloution to the same problem.
2: prior art: again the system has been very poor at recognising prior art leading to people getting and keeping patents for things that are already public.
3: areas patentable: a number of new areas (software, buisness methods) were made patentable by court descisions bypassing the normal procedures of governement. Now other countries are being pressured into making those things patentable as well. The lack of patented prior art (which is all the PTO seems to care about) means theese areas suffer from 1 and 2 far more than other areas.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register