[13-06-2007] Alan despares of sanity ever returning to the patent quagmire...
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is at it again. Even while being threatened with a serious shake up by congress and the Bush administration, they have issued Amazon with a follow up to its hotly disputed 'one click' patent. This time they've granted a patent for 'a method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network', and it includes following up an order by contacting the customer by phone or e-mail!
The lunacy of granting patents for this sort of common business method (or any business method, for that matter) is so obvious - large companies have been buying and selling electronically for at least 20 years - that the granting of such a patent can only hasten the re-organisation of the USPTO.
The sooner the better, I say.
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/06/07/uspto_shake_up/
The lunacy of granting patents for this sort of common business method (or any business method, for that matter) is so obvious - large companies have been buying and selling electronically for at least 20 years - that the granting of such a patent can only hasten the re-organisation of the USPTO.
The sooner the better, I say.
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/06/07/uspto_shake_up/