Pinpoint Sues Amazon For Patent Infringement

from the whoops dept

theodp writes "Pinpoint Incorporated filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court, alleging Amazon violated several of its patents covering "personalization" technology, which can be used to recommend merchandise to shoppers. The lawsuit also names as defendants Borders, Toys "R" Us, Target and other retailers for whom Amazon provides Web site services and technologies. The lawsuit is bound to stir further controversy among opponents of business-method patents, although those critics may not sympathize much since Amazon itself holds a number of such patents." While I agree that Amazon might not get much sympathy for their own silly patent obsession, one thing that I think makes Amazon at least slightly more honorable (if only slightly) is the fact that their patents are for stuff they actually are doing, as opposed to being one of these lazy "intellectual property companies" that simply collects patents, waits for others to come up with the same obvious idea, and then threatens to sue, hoping enough companies settle before the gig is up.

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