Japan set to reject Amazon patent
Amazon.com Inc. is facing a deadline within the next two weeks to respond to the Japan Patent Office's preliminary rejection of its patent application on a "one-click" online purchasing process.
The patent office last November notified Amazon that it had reason to reject Amazon's 1998 patent application, according to Kenichiro Natsumi, deputy director of the patent office's Technology Research Division. Also in November, the agency sent a similar notification to Signature Financial Group Inc. concerning a 1992 application for a patent on its "hub and spoke" data processing system.
Each company has only a few days left to file either an opinion to contest the rejection, or an amendment to the patent application to make it qualify, Natsumi said. Amazon must file by Thursday and Signature by Monday, May 21. In either case, if the company does not respond in time, the patent application will be rejected. However, Amazon or Signature could appeal the decision.
In both cases, the patent office found "prior art" -- evidence that others had the idea first. In the case of the "one-click" concept, the prior art consisted of an earlier Japanese patent application and a 1996 book, "User Interface Design," by Alan Cooper.
"We decided that the technology could be easily invented from this prior art," Natsumi said in a phone interview on Monday.
Ideas similar to Signature's technology likewise were found in an earlier patent application and a book, Natsumi said.
Amazon's "one-click" system, patented in the U.S., enables repeat customers to place orders without re-entering personal information such as a credit card or address. Part of the patent covers the way Amazon stores its billing and shipping data. Amazon has faced criticism and legal challenges over the patent, which critics said could stifle innovation by other online merchants.
A representative of the European Commission earlier this year also said that under a proposed revamp of Europe's patent law, Amazon's patent would not stand.
Signature Financial's technology, patented in the U.S. in 1993 under the name "Data Processing System for Hub and Spoke Financial Services Configuration," covers a computerized accounting system for managing a mutual fund investments operation. It has also come under legal attack in the U.S.
IDG News Service
Symantec Backup Exec 12 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8 deliver industry leading Windows data protection and system recovery. Download this whitepaper to find out the top reasons to upgrade and how to get continuous data protection and complete system recovery.
Data and system loss — from a hard drive failure, malicious attack, natural disaster, or simple human error — can happen anytime. Don’t leave your business vulnerable. Make sure you have a secure recovery strategy in place. Symantec's latest backup and system recovery technology can efficiently restore critical applications, individual emails and documents and even restore your entire system in minutes in the event of a loss.
Businesses face a growing challenge to ensure that the IT environment is properly protected. Backup Exec 12 integrates with other applications in the Symantec family of products, to complement your current data protection strategy, keep your data securely backed up and make it recoverable when you need it most.
