Discussion » Amazon gets insane patent

This is a read-only copy. The forum ran on iamcal.com from 2000 until its database was lost in 2016, and this topic was rebuilt from copies saved by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Some replies may be missing, and its dates are approximate.
Posted by Grim..., around 11th November 2005:
 
internetnews.com/bus-news/a...

User reviews are a hot new content area, being used by Google, Yahoo and MSN to sweeten their local search results. But as of Thursday, such consumer reviews could put search providers, as well as thousands of e-commerce sites, video rental or review sites and online booksellers, in the sights of Amazon.com's lawyers.

The online retailer of books and just about everything else was awarded three new patents, covering its purchase circles, search and consumer reviews. While Amazon.com's patent police would go after Web publishers, not consumers, the review patent could put the kibosh on the social networking components of many search services.
Posted by Grim..., around 12th November 2005:
 
So now, if you ever want to reviews written by a consumer about a product, if it's not on Amazon you're breaking the law.

Absolutley insane.
Posted by Saltation_DUPE1, around 13th November 2005:
 
next time you hear people up in arms about the "need" to patent business processes and algorithms, remember this example of the Why, which was actually thought through originally by the inventors of the patent and they explicitly excluded patent protection of them for precisely this sort of reason.

americans have also patented basmati rice. not a joke. (altho i have read subsequently that the indian government were able to have it struck down, but not for a real reason, only a technicality. they're in the papers again this week as themselves aggressively patenting portions of basmati rice's dna as a defensive move.)
Posted by Saltation_DUPE1, around 13th November 2005:
 
^Why^Why Not
Posted by Saltation_DUPE1, around 13th November 2005:
 
^inventors of the patent^the people who created the whole concept and system of Patents in the first place
Posted by WarHead, around 14th November 2005:
 
From ZDnet, march 2005

Girls like dolls, and their presents should be wrapped in pink paper. Whether it is obvious or not, Amazon now holds the patent on the idea.
Posted by Saltation_DUPE1, around 14th November 2005:
 
i wonder if i could sneak past the examiners a patent on the process and use of patents. the world's IP would be my bitch.