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Amazon 1-Click Patent Survives Almost Unscathed

Posted by timothy on from the can-this-just-be-a-bad-dream? dept.

Zordak writes "Amazon's infamous '1-click' patent has been in reexamination at the USPTO for almost four years. Patently-O now reports that 'the USPTO confirmed the patentability of original claims 6-10 and amended claims 1-5 and 11-26. The approved-of amendment adds the seeming trivial limitation that the one-click system operates as part of a 'shopping cart model.' Thus, to infringe the new version of the patent, an eCommerce retailer must use a shopping cart model (presumably non-1-click) alongside of the 1-click version. Because most retail eCommerce sites still use the shopping cart model, the added limitation appears to have no practical impact on the patent scope.'" Also covered at TechFlash.

4 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. My DEAR god by alexborges · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And here I thought I being mangnanimous with the PTO people and giving them the benefit of the doubt was the sound and decent thing to do.

    Not any more.

    They are stupid idiots.

    Now who's gonna patent the wonderful idea that is 2 Click ?

    --
    NO SIG
  2. Re:Non-obviousness. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More to the point, this patent has been fully exposed to the light of day, prior art has been submitted, and it's clearly unpatentable on the face of it.

    Yet the patent has been upheld.

    What this proves is that the USPTO doesn't need to be reformed, it needs to be scrapped. There's little legitimate point in having it at all anymore. The people it supposedly should protect (the small inventors) are the very people crushed by it. They and the rest of us would be better off if it no longer existed at all.

  3. the Supreme Court may have something to say by ChipMonk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The USPTO may find itself the butt of many jokes if SCOTUS invalidates 99% of software patents in their Bilski ruling.

    "Amazon 1-Click Patent Survives Almost Unscathed." Respect for the USPTO, not so much.

  4. Re:Non-obviousness. by ChipMonk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1-Click fails on every point, but most of all on prior art. A single click to "perform action X now" has been around at least since Douglas Englebart gave the Mother Of All Demos in 1968. If nobody in the USPTO's review process could see that, then they all deserve to be demoted to janitors. (But I wouldn't hire them to clean my floors.)