You thought Amazon's One-Click patent and following legal battle was bad... Have you had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich lately? You did not cut off the crusts and crimp the edges together, now did you? If so, you just have infringed on U.S. Patent 6,004,596 (currently owned by 'surprise' Smucker). From the patent: "The upper and lower fillings are preferably comprised of peanut butter and the center filling is comprised of at least jelly. The center filling is prevented from radiating outwardly into and through the bread portions from the surrounding peanut butter. " Michigan's Albie Foods just sued to have the patent removed. Let's hope they win, or pbjs soon may become an act of civil disobedience...
posted by noom on Mar 3, 2001 - 7 comments

amazon patents personalized recommendations. here we go again...
posted by mmanning on May 31, 2000 - 8 comments

amazon.com calls for patent reform. interesting open letter from bezos on the subject. of course, they're going to continue to use their patents as they can and see fit until the government forces them to do otherwise... (background)
posted by mmanning on Mar 9, 2000 - 0 comments

History lesson time. With all the Amazon patent hubbub, I thought it'd be nice to remind people that the same thing happened in the beginning of the automobile industry. (6th paragraph) Let's hope history repeats itself again, and a few large corporations are put in cha . . oh wait.
posted by alan on Mar 6, 2000 - 2 comments

Amazon is approved for a patent on the technology behind their affiliate program. Wow, this really has the potential to shake things up a bit. Will software patents like this destroy internet commerce?
posted by webshaping on Feb 27, 2000 - 3 comments