USPTO Imposes 'Undue Hardship' On 1-Click Lawyers

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday September 8, 2007 @04:23AM from the crack-of-noon dept.

theodp writes "Looks like Amazon's high-priced Silicon Valley attorneys will have to endure the 'undue hardship' of awakening early next Thursday morning to defend CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click patent in a Video Hearing before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The attorneys' plea for a 1 p.m. ET start time drew a be-there-at-9-or-be-square response from the USPTO. The 1-Click patent has fallen into disfavor lately with USPTO Examiners, who no longer have the same boss who once sent a 1-Click love letter to the WSJ arguing that the merits of Amazon's patent were proven by a contest run by a Jeff Bezos-financed company, an argument that was later rejected by Congress."

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Re:Timezones by spyowl · 2007-09-08 05:16 · Score: 3, Interesting

Errr... They refused to attend the hearing in person that they themselves requested! Now they are claiming undue hardhip because they are in a different timezone? What if they were on vacation in Turkey? Would they have asked the office to open at midnight and video conference them in because any other time it would be an "undue hardship" for the timezone the lawyers reside in?