The Mac Observer

Skip navigational links

You're viewing an article in TMO's historic archive vault. Here, we've preserved the comments and how the site looked along with the article. Use this link to view the article on our current site:
IBM Sues Amazon Over Patents

IBM Sues Amazon Over Patents

by , 3:00 PM EDT, October 23rd, 2006

IBM on Monday said it has filed a pair of lawsuits against Amazon.com, alleging that the online retailer has infringed on five patents, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). IBM has licensed the patents to other companies and has tried to work with Amazon.com "over a dozen times since 2002," but it "has refused every time," according to the court filings.

The patents include technologies that deal with customer recommendations, advertising, and data storage. The Wall Street Journal characterized them as "broad" and said that some of them were originally filed in the 1980s. The newspaper also noted that Amazon.com's well-known "one-click patent" is currently under review by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after receiving criticism that it was "overly broad and obvious."

John E. Kelly, IBM's senior vice-president for intellectual property, said of his company's patents: "These are very fundamental inventions for e-commerce and how to do it on the network. Much, if not all, of Amazon's business is built on top of this property.'' Amazon.com declined to comment.

Digg!

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Comment on this Article

Comments are currently closed. Please email the author instead.


Recent Headlines - Updated November 22nd

Fri, 7:07 PM
Games - Soccer Sim Championship Manager 2010 Released for Mac
6:47 PM
Games - EA Publishes Original Monopoly for iPhone
6:15 PM
News - Original Apple I on Ebay for $50K, w/Letter from Steve Jobs
6:11 PM
Games - New iPhone Games: Secret of the Lost Cavern Ep 1, New DJ Nights, More
5:47 PM
Games - Star Trek D-A-C Game Headed to the Mac Next Month
4:57 PM
Product News - TidBITS Releases “Take Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard”
4:26 PM
John Martellaro's Blog - Particle Debris (week ending 11/20) Stationery Pads Go Poof
2:59 PM
Free on iTunes - Musée du Louvre, Art Lite, SketchBook Mobile X and More.
1:50 PM
Deal Brothers - Acer P215H bmid 21.5” Widescreen LCD Monitor:  $139.99
11:24 AM
TMO Appearances - Jeff Gamet Shares More Holiday Gift Ideas on MacJury
10:43 AM
Product News - Cocktail 4.5 for Leopard Adds QuickLook Cache Clearing
10:06 AM
News - Hack Enables Mac OS X 10.6.2 on Netbooks

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

  • __________
  • Buy Stuff, Support TMO!
  • Podcast: Mac Geek Gab
  • Podcast: Apple Weekly Report
  • TMO on Twitter!