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[FYI] Net Patent Squabbles Increase
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] Net Patent Squabbles Increase
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 23:53:10 +0100
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- Organization: PA Axel H Horns
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Net Patent Squabbles Increase
03:25EST
By ANICK JESDANUN
AP Internet Writer
02/21/00
NEW YORK (AP) -- Returning customers can buy a book from Amazon.com
with a single mouse click now that the retail giant automatically
retrieves a name, address and credit card number.
Yet other sites that try one-click shopping could land in court:
Amazon has a patent on the procedure.
Such proprietary claims, being sorted out in federal courts, are
fueling complaints that businesses are getting overly broad Internet
patents for ideas that aren't so original.
Critics say growing patent use may stymie the flow of ideas that
makes the Internet so robust. And, they fear, companies worrying more
about patents and less about customers could stunt Internet growth.
"If everyone focuses on ideas, they don't get as much done,'' said
Stuart Wolff, chairman of Homestore.com in Thousand Oaks, Calif. "You
need people out there building stuff.''
Other Internet companies consider patents an important reward. In
1990, the U.S. government granted 22 patents for inventions tied to
the Internet; by 1998, the number had jumped to 2,193.
[...]
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