Amazon patents shopper analysis system
/v3-uk/news/1972856/amazon-patents-shopper-analysis
30 Jun 2005, Ken Young , V3
Amazon has been granted a US patent for the technology it uses to monitor users' shopping habits and suggest future purchases.
Users are most familiar with the visible aspect of the technology which announces: 'People who bought this also bought ...'
Referring to it as 'Recommendation Technology' an Amazon spokesman said: " This is a key part of our technology and something that took thousands of hours to develop. We have done this to protect our intellectual property. This is a method of shopper analysis that is unique to us."
But some experts have suggested that this is an example of patenting a business model, which not allowable under UK patent law.
"Patenting law is crazy in the US. This wouldn’t happen here. After all, recommending new ideas to shoppers is something that has been going on in shops for hundreds of years," said Michael Chissick, head of IT and e-commerce at law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse.
"As a result we recommend that e-commerce firms think hard about patenting technologies in the US because it is so easy for someone over there to see what you are doing and get a patent before you do."
Amazon currently has around 100 patents in the US and overseas. The company declined to say whether a similar patent is being applied for in the UK or across Europe.
The news comes days after a European Parliament committee approved a legislative proposal creating a single way of patenting software throughout the EU, for which many IT firms have been lobbying hard.
But the bill does not allow the patenting of business methods, or programmes like Amazon's 'one-click' shopping system which has led to litigation with e-commerce firms offering similar systems.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
The bill not allowing??
Just read this:
"A claim to a computer program, either on its own or on a carrier, shall not be allowed unless that program would, when loaded and executed in a programmable computer, programmable computer network or other programmable apparatus, put into force a product or process claimed in the same patent application in accordance with paragraph 1."
So, if you let a computer interpret the writing called a computerprogram, it can be patentable, since a computer does do something... As far as i know, thats the reason you write them, to have the computer do something, one does ceartainly not write them to be a novel.
Software is not manufactured, it is something you write and publish. Keep Europe free from software patents, we do not want censorship by patent law on written works.
I think that European member States should ensure, that patents do not limit or except the rights of authors in accordance to TRIPs article 13, that patents do not conflict with normal exploitation of data and information and do not prejudice legitimate interests of authors, that publication, handling and distribution of information, including loading and execution of computer programs and all effects thereof (a legit.interest of the author = the reason for writing), can never constitute a direct or indirect patent infringement.
Also remember Turing, it has been known since 1936 that a Turingmachine can compute anything computable (programming languages are Turing complete). Hey, it is a computer, it computes, it is allredy known what it can do, an innvention must lie in new hardware, not in logic running existing hardware, you get an error if you try to run something it not allredy is designed to,... or more correct, have it calculating something that can not be calculated.
Patents and copyright are completley uncompatible, patents stopping authors from publishing their own writings, like computer programs, have an expropriating effect on the future where authors cannot know that they fully own their legitimate rights to their own writings. Now.. how can an author be expected to get food on his table when he is not entitled his legitimate rights to his own writings?
Authors will be made responsible for what some unknown third mans computer does, when this man, on his own initiative, let his computer interpret the authors published writing. Or.. plain ignorant users that just downloads something off the net can be accused of patent infringiment.
Once again: Software is not manufactured, it is something you write and publish. Keep Europe free from software patents, we do not want censorship by patent law on written works.
Posted by Magnus S., 30 Jun 2005