Amazon Granted 1-Hour Offer Patent
from the order-now! dept
theodp writes "Amazon was awarded a patent Tuesday for its Interactive Time-Limited Merchandising Program and Method for Improved Online Cross-Selling, which appears to be lawyer-speak for presenting customers with one limited-time offer after another until they finally bite on one or decline them all. So be careful - the next time you offer folks 10% off on a garden rake if they purchase it within sixty minutes after declining to buy a saucepan, you could be guilty of patent infringement!"
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Filed Under: ordering, patents, time-limited
Companies: amazon
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Been There Done That
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Re: Been There Done That
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Re: Been There Done That
Or the "Limited time offer! Call now!" commercials that have been around since at least that long? (Granted, I doubt they actually time those, but the concept is clearly there.)
Where the hell do they find these patent examiners?
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Re: Re: Been There Done That
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Re:
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Sorry...
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woot
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Patents in general
Further, I think any patent covering an item that is not currently in production should be dissolved. Patenting an idea to prevent it from being formed by someone else, while doing nothing with said patent is a practice that should be stopped.
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software patent?
the code to offer sales is a little obvious, but the idea of doing it is kinda sorta not so much so.
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Read the patent details...
Yes I agree that there are some software patents that are so generically defined that they are meaningless, but in fairness, I don't think this is one of them.
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Re: Read the patent details...
OOH! I'll patent the fuel gauge that shows both gallons and liters so you know how much you'd be getting screwed if you had to pay by the liter.
This is fun. I'm going to find other things that people are doing, but a minor, but fairly obvious twist on it and patent the hell out of it...or stop trolling...whichever.
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Re: Re: Read the patent details...
As the subject title notes, try reading the patent before waxing poetic on what you seem to feel are failings of the current law.
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Re: Read the patent details...
What is that, like, "free nude pic of the day"?
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Re: Read the patent details...
Don't get me wrong I have found myself almost solely relying on Amazon for a large portion of things I buy and even have Prime. It just amazes me that there are Kool-Aid drinkers in every crowd even Amazons.
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