BountyLess

from the gone-gone-gone dept

theodp writes "E-Commerce Times reports that BountyQuest is apparently no more, its Web site shut down, its phones disconnected. The company, founded in 2000 and backed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, offered cash rewards to individuals who could prove or disprove a company's claim to a patent." They had admitted in the past that they'd had some problems, but I hadn't realized they'd shut down completely.
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  • identicon
    thecaptain, 7 Apr 2003 @ 7:01am

    makes sense

    The backer was Amazon. Why would amazon support something that would hinder their patent-filing spree of late?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 7 Apr 2003 @ 3:39pm

      Re: makes sense

      But, then how do you explain the fact that they sponsored it in the first place?

      When it first came out the point that Bezos made was that he was sponsoring it because he wanted to know if the patents they were filing were bogus. However, if they weren't he wanted to use the lack of BountyQuest evidence to support his claims that his patents were completely legit.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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