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E-Commerce To Evolve Next Month As Amazon Loses the 1-Click Patent (thirtybees.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

An anonymous reader shares an article: Next month e-commerce will change forever thanks to Amazon. September 12 marks 20 years since Amazon filed for their 1-Click patent. This means that the patent will expire and the technology behind it will be free to be used by any e-commerce site. Starting next month more and more sites will be offering a one click checkout experience. Most major sites have already started development with plans to launch soon after the patent expires. Amazon applied for the 1-Click patent in September of 1997, the actual patent was granted in 1999. The whole idea behind the patent is when you store a user's credit card and address you only need a single click to order a product. For the last 20 years Amazon has kept a tight hold on this technology, they have only licensed it to one company: Apple. No one knows what Apple paid to license the technology, but the value of the patent has been assessed at 2.4 billion dollars by sources. Over the last 20 years Amazon has defended the validity of the patent in several cases, even having to revise the patent at one point. But, now the wait is almost over and this technology is about to make it into the open market.

16 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Never should have been granted by tomhath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This patent exemplifies everything that's wrong with software patents.

    1. Re:Never should have been granted by Narcocide · · Score: 2

      It shouldn't even be legal to deploy, let alone patent.

    2. Re:Never should have been granted by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Well the question is, if Amazon didn't come up with this idea, would it be used today? While today it seems obvious, because we have seen it in action. But would had this idea been successfully implemented without it? There is a risk involved in keeping the billing information accessible to the interface layer, and allow for one click purchase, may have been too easy, and caused problems where too much stuff was purchased by accident or fraudulently.

      A lot of businesses work off the model, what are the other are doing. So the Amazon 1 click may had been a unique and original idea.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:Never should have been granted by magarity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand, it illustrates nicely that even bad patents are prevented from being permanent problems, unlike the eternal monster copyright has become.

  2. Who cares? by vadim_t · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I always thought it was a bad idea and never enabled it.

    Amazon seems to have really wanted me to enable it, but what's best for Amazon isn't necessarily best for me.

    1. Re:Who cares? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One click is the Amazon version of having candy bars at the checkout stand: quite a few people will make an impulse purchase without thinking about it twice.

    2. Re:Who cares? by tsqr · · Score: 2

      We don't need a law against this, you need to control yourself and your kids.

      Not advocating for this supposed law, but let me guess: you've never had kids. Young children, no matter how well they're raised, have terrible judgement, no common sense, high levels of curiosity, and make a huge number of mistakes. This is how human beings learn. I suppose a parent could "control" a child by draconian means, but then the child would turn into a useless, dangerous adult.

  3. 20 Years to use a simple feature? by evolutionary · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is why we need to redo the current US patent laws. They don't encourage innovation, they just protect corporations at the expense of public benefit. In addition, they actually inhibit innovation and intellectual evolution.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
    1. Re:20 Years to use a simple feature? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Mickey Mouse, stupid as it is, involves an actual creative step. something new was added to humanity when he was drawn. The one click patent is the inevitable effect of standard UX processes trying everything possible to reduce the number of steps in a process. Nothing original was required to produce it.

      More important than that though; Mickey Mouse has never stopped other cartoon mice being created. You are not free to copy Mickey Mouse but you are free to use the idea of a talking mouse in a cartoon in almost any way you like. The one click patent stops anyone living in countries where it is valid from creating a one click shopping process no matter what software they write themselves to do it.

      The patent is much less reasonable than the copyright, even if the latter is illegally and unconstitutionally extended indefinitely (the judges who claim otherwise are fools).

  4. Technology by fox171171 · · Score: 3, Informative

    This means that the patent will expire and the technology behind it

    For the last 20 years Amazon has kept a tight hold on this technology,

    I'm struggling to understand how the term "technology" fits in these sentences.

  5. Re:Patents are Good IP. Copyrights are bad. by tomhath · · Score: 2

    It wasn't innovative at all.

    When I was a kid there was a small grocery store nearby where everyone in the neighborhood had an account. We could walk in, grab a soft drink out of the cooler, and tell the owner to "put it on our account". All Amazon did was use that same model "on the Internet".

  6. Doh! by Diss+Champ · · Score: 2

    I've always been annoyed by the non-confirmation principle in 1-click. This is one of those patents I've been glad somebody got because figuring how to turn it off for one vendor is infinitely preferable to figuring out how to turn it off for every vendor.

  7. Is this even a big deal? by WilliamGeorge · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I shop at Amazon quite a lot, but I don't think I've ever used the 1-click checkout. I always want to double-check the payment method I am using (I have several, depending on what I am getting and what it is for) and where it is shipping (home, work, a gift to someone, etc).

    For other Amazon customers, do you find this feature to actually be something you use? And have you ever not shopped at another online store (or chosen to shop at Amazon instead) specifically because of this? I am genuinely curious.

    --
    William George
  8. Re:Patents are Good IP. Copyrights are bad. by craXORjack · · Score: 2

    There was a movie released 40 years ago called Star Wars which is still pulling in decent profits today. There are many other examples of movies and books that can continue to accrue value with longer protection such as Bladerunner, The Hobbit, Beatles and Rolling Stones albums from the 60's.

    Copyright is fundamentally different from patent law in that it is not there to encourage innovation but to allow the creator to profit from his or her own work. I can see the sense in allowing a copyright to endure at least until the death of the creator. But I can also see the sense in allowing it past the death of the creator. Imagine if your mother wrote a fantasy novel that was wildly popular but died in a car crash while on the book signing tour. Shouldn't her estate reap the value of her work?

    However, 70 years past the death of the creator seems quite excessive. I think a 20 year moratorium on copyright makes sense upon transfer of the copyright whether that transfer is to heirs due to the death of the creator or outright sale to a copyright holding corporation.

    --
    Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
  9. What?! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Informative

    September 12 marks 20 years since Amazon filed for their 1-Click patent.

    Shit, I'm old.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  10. 1-Click Not Technology by StormReaver · · Score: 2

    The 1-Click patent isn't technology. It's more like seeing people use a bow knot somewhere, seeing that most people tie their shoes with a permanent knot, then starting to tie your shoes with a bow knot, then patenting all uses of the bow knot.

    The 1-Click patent should never have been granted, as it violated every single requirement for a patentable invention.