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Amazon Patents Electronic Gifting

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-your-gifts-are-belong-to-us dept.

theodp writes "Simply giving your mother an e-book for her birthday could constitute patent infringement now that the USPTO's gone and awarded Amazon.com a patent on the 'Electronic Gifting' of items such as music, movies, television programs, games, or books. BusinessInsider speculates that the patent may be of concern to Facebook, which just dropped a reported $80 million on social gift-giving app maker Karma Science."

2 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. guaranteed profit by louic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. pick a daily activity
    2. put the word "electronic" in front of it
    3. file for patent
    4. profit

  2. Will probably never be used. by will_die · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The patent is for a system where you can setup condition on the gifts you are given and before they are shipped allows you to change them, even sending you notification on what the original item was.
    For example, person X gives you a some new book, you have previously setup a condition that all gifts get converted to gift cards. You receive notification that they sent you the book and you can then use the gift card to purchase anything you want.
    I guess it saves some time and money of shipping the product back but who is really going to use it?