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USPTO Increases Scope Of Amazon's 1-Click Patent
An anonymous reader writes "While the patent office had rejected earlier attempts by Amazon to get a continuation patent on its infamous "1-click" patent, it appears that an impatient USPTO examiner has approved the continuation, apparently because of the failure of BountyQuest to come up with prior art. This continuation adds claims like contacting the recipient of an order via e-mail or a phone call to obtain additional info."
...on average, what percentage of a patent examiner's net worth is actually wages, and what percent is some form of bribes and hush money.
It just seems an inherently corruption-friendly system that allows any examiner of proper rank to step in and hand monopolies out to companies at a moment's notice.
Ryan Fenton
The whole patent rant is an assumed thing here on /. The whole list of possible solutions or fixes to the patent system has also been beaten to death, and requires no addressing. We don't need to name companies which use immoral tactics, we all know the names. We don't need to cry about all of the projects which have been destroyed. We all know it's commonplace and might as well get used to it.
No sir-ree, there is noting to see here, just the USPTO doing their jobs just as well as ever.
Go ahead and mod me flamebait or troll, but my point is that this isn't just about the 1 click patent. There's a company that has the patent on the breast cancer gene. Thats right, you can't try to cure a prevalent form of cancer without paying a frickin' royalty for something that wasn't even invented. At best you could say that they discovered it.
We need to keep trying to stop this insanity.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
using a Skilsaw to cut a piece of plywood. One-click is a trivial application of features built into a tool set that envisioned it in it's inception. It is worst of two stupid patent paradigms, the software patent and the business method patent. When will this sort of thing be recognized as the malignant lawyer-driven racket it is?
every single internet anything sends an email are they out of their minds?
This is what the future will look like: you are living in the slums in the worst designed house (all good designs are copyrighted and you cant pay), with the worse job (you cannot afford the licenses for your buinsess practices, such as say, keeping a running total, or an electronic till with anything close to useful interfaces)(although you could become an enforcer of infractions of those laws and make enough for a a daily drink), if you want to send a letter, you will be too poor to afford anything but large sum, poorly handled, lost and stolen mail (i assume that the post office is patented out of exsistance)(ditto for phone calls), so you are alone, poor and working all the time. Rich people will trade eachother money and laugh but they will be very very few.
This is what will happen if you dont elect RON PAUL and fix your fucking country
please type the word in this image: suffer
greasing the right palms might still get a patent granted
Greasing the palms?! C'mon these patent assesors are obviously being paid with child-sex prostitutes!
I mean once you go accusing an entire class of people of corruption without a scintilla of proof, why stop there?
This is really pretty easy stuff guys. The examiner searches for prior art, and if he finds it, or an obvious combination of it, badda-bing, lovely rejection. If not, he is bound by statute to allow the patent, period. 35 USC s. 102 ("A person shall be entitled to a patent unless" there exists invalidating art). We all know you hate the law and the standards, but give this poor examiner a break, will you? He HAS to allow the patent UNLESS he comes up with a case to reject it. He HAS to do it. He HAS to. Suggesting bad faith or corruption as the cause of the examiner's allowance is obnoxious and naive.
The examiner did his research, and gave it his best shot. By amendment and argument, Amazon shot down his case. Nobody came to the rescue with any new art, and the examiner didn't find any. Indeed, despite the FAMOUSNESS of this battle, NOBODY has come up with any art to defeat the new claims or the old ones.
There are better battles to pitch than this one.
Try and organize a revolution.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Additional limitations on an already issued patent are no big deal. Amazon already has the 1-click patent. All this does is keep someone from patenting on top of amazon, it doesn't really give them anything more.
Here's how it works...
Amazon patent A: (1 click)
Amazon patent B: (1 click) + (other stuff)
Anyone infringing B also infringes A. All Amazon has done is prevented someone else from patenting this particular flavor of (1 click)+(other stuff). They don't get anything extra because patent A already covers the stuff patent B covers.
So, the only people who should be upset by this are patent trolls who want to patent the nuances around 1 click and then sue Amazon and other etailors.
I am a lawyer, but not yours. Anything I tell you might be a total lie intended to benefit my clients at your expense.