IBM sues Amazon over e-commerce patents

amazon refused to licen$e them...

[walkman]

I have mixed feelings, especially since amazon sued over the 1-click thingy.
[chron.com...]
"Some of the patents were first filed in the 1980s, when IBM created back-end technology for Prodigy...Given that time frame, these are very fundamental inventions for e-commerce and how to do it on the network," said John E. Kelly III, IBM's senior vice president for intellectual property. "Much, if not all, of Amazon's business is built on top of this property."

Hundreds of other companies have licensed the same patents, and IBM has tried to negotiate licensing deals with Amazon "over a dozen times since 2002," Kelly said. Seattle-based Amazon has refused every time "while pretending to desire resolution," the lawsuits state."

[haggul]

What a load of rubbish.

Next you'll have the first person that ever opened a shop suing every other high street retailer because they dared to have a shop window and some shelves!

Although yeah - after the 1 click thing they got it coming of course!

[hunderdown]

In the US, software procedures and "business methods" can be patented. That's the basis for this--rubbish in the UK, perhaps, but a lawyer's banquet in the US.

[encyclo]

More here: [webmasterworld.com...]