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Bezos Buries Patent Office in Paper

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the it's-hard-standing-by-your-word dept.

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.'"

16 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Fortunately, the 2-day shipping was free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because the Patent Office subscribed to Amazon Prime.

    1. Re:Fortunately, the 2-day shipping was free by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I stopped buying from Amazon after the 1 click patent fiasco. They haven't gotten a penny from me since, nor will they in the future. I'm willing to spend a few bucks more elsewhere. It's called voting with my wallet.

      I won't even grace their website with hits.

    2. Re:Fortunately, the 2-day shipping was free by null+etc. · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm sure Amazon has noticed your recent lack of purchases, and is willing to reconsider their business model as a result. Either that, or they think you dropped dead.

    3. Re:Fortunately, the 2-day shipping was free by startling · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I won't even grace their website with hits.
      Why not use their bandwidth to listen to music samples or read book extracts, and then buy them elsewhere?
  2. 20 kg? by Otter · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Presumably theodp is one of those people who always waits for someone else to refill the copy machine -- 20 kg of paper isn't exactly "burying the Patent Office", particularly when a reexamination on a key patent for your business is at stake.

    This is the same guy who submits these anti-Amazon stories every other week, right? At least this time the links seem vaguely related to his grievance, although I have no idea what that Flickr picture is supposed to show.

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    1. Re:20 kg? by Otter · · Score: 4, Insightful
      1) Even 200 kg of documents isn't that much, in a case like this.

      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...
    2. Re:20 kg? by hcdejong · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Doing the math, it's about 4000 sheets of A4. That's a whole lot of paper to wade through, especially if it's in legalese rather than English.

  3. Re:4 Pages? I think not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Pledge? by devnullkac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!
  6. Suggestion by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Funny

    I say we name this the Bezos effect. It's kinda like a slashdot effect but analog. :P

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  7. Re:4 Pages? by kansas1051 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Amazon, and all other patent applicants, tend to submit large volumes of information for consideration by examiners. Both federal law and patent office rules (37 CFR 1.56) require applicants to submit information that is "material" to patentability -- which federal courts have construed to mean anything that remote relates to the invention.

    So, if you forget to submit a single page of information (out of 10 million) that has some marginal relation to your invention (in this case, probably a printout of every existing ecommerce site), your patent could be held unenforceable due to "inequitable conduct."

  8. Can he do anything else? by Dolohov · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Obligatory by InvisblePinkUnicorn · · Score: 4, Funny

    One Click to Rule them All, and in the PTO Bind them!

  10. Thursday, April 05, 2007 by ScytheBlade1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Whoops.

    (See post topic)

  11. Re:4 Pages? I think not by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.