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Bezos Buries Patent Office in Paper
theodp writes "On June 2nd, almost two-and-half years after the USPTO initiated a reexamination of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click Patent, Amazon dumped another load of documents on the USPTO Examiner assigned to the case, asking for consideration of the 185 or so listed references and 'favorable action.' Peter Calveley, the LOTR actor whose do-it-yourself legal effort prompted the reexam, notes that he was cc'ed on 20 kg of documents that Amazon sent earlier to the USPTO as it tried to stave off last October's nonfinal rejection of all but 5 of Amazon's 26 1-Click patent claims. So much for Bezos' 2000 pledge of 'less work for the overworked Patent and Trademark Office.'"
Einstein's theory of general relativity runs to many more pages than four. Garbage? I think not. Darwin's The Origin of the Species? More that four.
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2) If you look at the "pledge" link, Bezos raises some ideas for patent reform and notes that if implemented it would cut the workload at the Patent Office. There's no "pledge" to send fewer boxes of paper in a reexamination. I don't usually notice who says what, but this "theodp" guy sticks in my head because all his (frequent) submissions are like this: obsessive complaining about Amazon, with multiple links that have little or nothing to do with he's claiming they're about.
Incidentally, it seems like the June 2nd submission that prompts this round is 15 lousy pages long, no?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I saw no pledge of less work for the Patent Office in that open letter. I saw instead a prediction of less work, should his recommendations for patent reform be realized.
The One Click patent is certainly a lightning rod for patent reform, but we should be more sure of what we're accusing our enemies of.
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
I'm fine mocking the guy over his hypocrisy, but if I'm not mistaken, Amazon is a publicly traded company. Amazon != Bezos anymore. He can't just shrug and not defend the company's IP (even if it's not really IP) because he owes it to the shareholders to protect the value and perceived value of the company and its properties. The company has to be seen doing due diligence in this case so that the shareholders will be confident that they will do it when it matters.
But you can explain them to a reasonably intelligent person in less than four pages. That's what the OP (and Richard Feynman, who first said it) meant.