End of the road for e-commerce patents?
For years, the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has granted patents covering e-commerce business methods, and companies have exploited such patents to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
In one famous example, Amazon.com sued Barnes & Noble just before the 1999 holiday season, alleging infringement of Amazon's "1-click" shopping cart patent. The court granted Amazon's request to force Barnes & Noble to modify its Web site, giving Amazon a leg up during the holiday season.
Although the validity of Amazon's patent was later called into question, there are thousands of other e-commerce patents held by companies doing business on the Internet. Such patents have provided a valuable resource for companies to obtain venture capital and to protect research and development investments.
