Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon Patents Including a String at End of a URL

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the why-didn't-i-think-of-that-oh-wait dept.

theodp writes "On Tuesday, Amazon search subsidiary A9.com was awarded U.S. patent no. 7,287,042 for 'including a search string at the end of a URL without any special formatting.' In the Summary of the Invention, it's explained that 'a user wishing to search for 'San Francisco Hotels' may do by simply accessing the URL www.domain_name/San Francisco Hotels, where domain_name is a domain name associated with the web site system.' Here's the flowchart that helped cinch the deal."

2 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Wha? by shinma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure they even LOOK at patent applications anymore.

    --
    Shinma
  2. Wrong approach by tamtaradei · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You cannot fix procedural problems by simply blaming the unfortunate person who was executing the procedure. The entire patent system is flawed - it is not a random failure, it is just an outcome of an incorrect system.

    Unless it was supposed to work that way - but then why pay anyone for examining the patents before they are filed? Maybe the Patent Office should just be a kind of notary who only records when someone came up with the idea, just to give him or her the legal basis for later defending his or her rights, but does not examine whether the idea is original.