International E-Commerce? Patented!

from the wonderful dept

The latest silly patent showed up when DE Technologies decided to sue Dell claiming they owned a patent covering "international commerce conducted by computer." Sounds a bit... broad, yes? Actually, this is the first use of this patent, which has a somewhat famous history. Back in 2000 it was held up by news story after news story as the perfect example of why business models shouldn't be patented. Now we're about to find out just what type of mess it will create.