Apple-Amazon 1-Click, Useless And Controversial?

The reactions to Apple licensing the 1-Click technology from Amazon.com seem mixed. There are users and writers who believe that the Apple Store is simple enough - not without reasons - that the 1-Click technology adds very little to an already simple shopping experience at Appleis online store.

A different reaction, this one coming from Salon.com through the words of Damian Cave, leaves us a little puzzled. There is apparently a controversy over the patent given to Amazon since it allows the company to sue anybody who comes up with a competing system, thus, by law, forcing interested parties to license Amazonis system.

The matter does raise the question of patents on Internet technologies since coding can allow competitors to respond quickly to innovations. It raises another question, that of the right to protect someoneis fruit of labor after intense efforts to come up with something new.