OUT-LAW news, a publication of the Pinsent Masons law firm, reports that the European Patent Office has rejected the Amazon “one-click” patent application.   The subject is a one-click shopping cart to reduce the amount of input one has to make on subsequent orders.

The US courts narrowed the scope of Amazons’s original patent claims, but ultimately allowed the patent.  In Canada, the Federal court allowed the patent last fall – but is has been appealed.

I’m not a patent lawyer, so weighing in here with my thoughts might be dangerous, but IMHO, the European Patent Office has it right.

There has been a lot of controversy and debate over whether too many things are patentable, especially in the software and business method areas. 

Many thought the Amazon 1-click patent, which was under review, should not be valid.  The USPTO has, however, confirmed the patent.

Mike Masnick of Techdirt sums it up nicely, with links to further detail.  Mike says:

US Patent Office Decides That One Click Really Is Patentable

from the wow dept

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have confirmation that the USPTO is a joke. After years of back and forth, it has decided, once again, that Amazon’s one-click patent is perfectly valid. This, despite tons of prior art, and basic common sense. We were just wondering what was taking so long for the USPTO to reject the patent. But, of course, it seemed like the USPTO was willing to go out of its way to help keep this patent around. Of course, as some are pointing out, the end result of this patent surviving is that it may be used as example number one for patent reform.