Friday, November 11, 2005
Patently Ridiculous
I've never been much of a fan of patents, and even less so of business process patents. The Business 2.0 blog now points to an absurd new patent granted to Amazon: consumer reviews.
U.S. Patent 6,963,848 covers methods and techniques to encourage customers to write reviews and submit ratings of items they've purchased, through optimal timing of reminders on accessed pages and via email. . . .Amazon.com applied for consumer review patent in March, 2000. Amazon has not yet publicly commented on whether it plans to license the patent to other online retailers, or pursue ecommerce sites with consumer review features for infringement.What will they patent next? Wish lists?
