Will Amazon Wordsmith 1-Click Patent Back From The Dead?

from the looking-that-way dept

Wed, Dec 5th 2007 8:01am — Mike Masnick

theodp writes "By merely adding six words suggested to them by the USPTO (and changing the word 'a' to 'the'), attorneys for Amazon.com are claiming to have out-finessed the do-it-yourself lawyering efforts of LOTR actor Peter Calveley and have now instructed the USPTO to reinstate ALL of the 1-Click patent claims that were rejected in October as a result of Calveley's reexam request." And that, ladies and gentleman, is a reminder of just how difficult it really is to invalidate a patent. As we said back when people were celebrating the initial rejection of one-click claims, this story is far from over -- and the advantage always goes to the patent holder.

Filed Under: one-click, patents
Companies: amazon

12 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

ehrichweiss, 5 Dec 2007 @ 8:25am

cue angry dude's bitching, whining and moaning
in
5
4
3
2(beep)
1.....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Slammer, 5 Dec 2007 @ 8:38am

Logic
Why is Amazon fighting so hard for this patent? I can understand it as a defensive move but if invalid, nobody else should be able to patent it either.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TheDock22, 5 Dec 2007 @ 8:43am

Too bad
This really is too bad. The 1-click feature of Amazon rocks and proves that they can be innovative, but to block it off so no other companies can us is silly. I don't believe they would see sales drop by extending this convenience to other websites. It is a real shame.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Glenn Fleishman, 5 Dec 2007 @ 10:46am

But Peter is happy with the results, which dramatically narrow claim 11.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
anon, 5 Dec 2007 @ 11:59am

omfg capitolists
i dont understand why people cant just share sortware and ideas and shit like that. stupid patents keep poeple from colaborating and creating better things that EVERYONE could use...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TheDock22, 5 Dec 2007 @ 12:05pm

Re: omfg capitolists
i dont understand why people cant just share sortware and ideas and shit like that.

Yea, like how about 1-Word Checkout. All I have to do is say my special word and the software automatically adds it to my shopping cart and checks me out. Everyone is free to use my idea, except Amazon who I will sue if they even try it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Max Powers, 5 Dec 2007 @ 12:44pm

Getting Old
This fighting between company's is getting old. When corporations join with technology to form a better way for all consumers, everybody wins.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michelle, 5 Dec 2007 @ 1:24pm

Peter Calveley
Seems he was a choreographer in LOTR, not an actor.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michelle, 5 Dec 2007 @ 1:30pm

Peter Calveley
"Peter Calveley is one of the actors who provided the motions for computer-generated elves and orcs in Two Towers."

Kinda sorta an actor :v
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tom Evans, 25 Dec 2007 @ 2:28pm

Its Software, Its a Bar Tab... and its what cookie
Does software (or business processes) effect the physical world?

Writing up software, an expression of an IDEA, in a patent app does not make it patentable. SCUS will someday wake up and fix this.

But even so, moving a normal human behavior to a computer is not invention - its observation, abstraction, and implementation. That is what is obvious to someone skilled in the art - no matter what the lawyers say.

Cookies. Bah.
This would be like... create tablet of paper, (paper, staple, and assembly claim), make table available for use (table + selected spot on bar + pen claims), make notation of arrival of customer, request, cost and time/date, ( paper + pen + optical sense and pattern recognition + writing + time-of-day instrument claims), bla bla bla.

Its a bar tab.
Amazon, I have never used 1-click, and wont' until this patent is invalidated, preferrably by you "the Corporate "Person") declaring that you are all friendly flying fakers

Software patents do not further the common good, not in any way shap or form. Our laws, as specified by and for citizens have been twisted to provide one sided benefit to corportions, the people who run them and the polititions that take their money.

In the US, call Congress at: 202 224 3121
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Frank, 26 Dec 2007 @ 10:06am

Re: Getting Old
Not a bad though as long as you remove the word corporation.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Roderick Klein, 26 Dec 2007 @ 12:11pm

WHo realy benefits here ?
I work in the IT sector myself and how much knowlegde do I have ? The sector always changes and evolves. But yhe Amazon one click patent, just like many other IT related patents should have never been granted.

I gues its save to say only one group of people are involved most with the whole patent process and have the most benefit in ceeping this silly circus going ?!
Gues who, lawyers. They process patents before send to the USPTO or European patent office, they send out the letters asking you should license "technology" and if it gets to it "see you in court"...

There are also serious IT patents but most of the patents that reach the mean stream press do so for a reason. And not all dicussions on slashdot are sometimes amusing on patents, sometimes the discussions alone do provide a serious case for patents to be reviewed again. And with that in mind you rea;y wonder how good the patent offices are doing there work. By approving a lot of succh fundamentaly flawed IT patents...
[ link to this | view in thread ]