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  John Duncan Yoyo, 3 Sep 2008 @ 7:47am

  
  

  Been There Done That

  Fails on prior use timed deals were done at K-Mart in the seventies. Anyone remember a Blue light special?

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  hegemon13, 3 Sep 2008 @ 7:59am

  
  

  Re: Been There Done That

  But...but...Amazon is doing it *ONLINE*!

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  ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 3 Sep 2008 @ 11:53am

  
  

  Re: Been There Done That

  "Anyone remember a Blue light special?"
  
  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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  Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 12:00pm

  
  

  Re: Re: Been There Done That

  the zoo pays them to take away the ugly monkeys.

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  Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:03am

  
  

  No More WootOffs?

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  Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 3:18pm

  
  

  Re:

  I was thinking the samething

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  Patent Whore, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:10am

  
  

  Sorry...

  I have patented the idea of patenting obvious ideas. They are clearly infringing!

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  y8, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:20am

  
  

  woot

  The woot off is not dependant on whether you take action on a previous item, and it is not time dependent, it is product availability dependant.

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  UUUD444, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:39am

  
  

  Patents in general

  I personally think all software-based patents should be dissolved. For one thing, like this one, they tend to be way too general. Seriously, offering a new item up for sale on a cyclical basis? How is that a unique idea?
  
  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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  Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:58am

  
  

  The patent covers a system and method that is much more nuanced than simply a string of time limited offers (e.g., HSN, QVC).

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  edgebilliards (profile), 3 Sep 2008 @ 9:11am

  
  

  software patent?

  is this a software or a business method patent? i'm not super-knowledgeable, but it kinda walks the line b/w the two.
  
  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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  SoyChicken Little, 3 Sep 2008 @ 9:30am

  
  

  Read the patent details...

  ... and you will see that it's fairly well defined and pertains to their use of goldbox daily deals which I think is unique and patent-worthy. They put a lot of time and research into developing it, and I don't think it would be fair for other online e-commerce entities to straight copy it.
  
  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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  StrawMan, 3 Sep 2008 @ 9:54am

  
  

  Re: Read the patent details...

  You know what else was innovative and worthy of a patent by those standards? The online shopping cart, rubber wheels, pneumatic tires, a digital volume control, speedometers that show both MP/h and KM/h.
  
  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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  Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 10:06am

  
  

  Re: Re: Read the patent details...

  "Strawman" is an apt moniker since you appear to be quite adept at creating irrelevant and inaccurate strawmen.
  
  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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  Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:39pm

  
  

  Re: Re: Re: Read the patent details...

  "Strawman" is an apt moniker since you appear to be quite adept at creating irrelevant and inaccurate strawmen.

  Perhaps you should learn what a straw man argument and sarcasm are and the difference between the two so that your comments don't appear to coming from a complete idiot.

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  Innocent Gosling, 3 Sep 2008 @ 11:42am

  
  

  Re: Read the patent details...

  Goldbox Daily Deals?
  
  What is that, like, "free nude pic of the day"?

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  JT, 3 Sep 2008 @ 12:36pm

  
  

  Re: Read the patent details...

  Oh yeah they put millions of hours into taking another persons idea that's been around for a long time and expanding on it.
  
  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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