[Ecommerce] Amazon.com goes nuclear on Avis, Orbitzv(patents)

[Michelle Childs]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/amazon_patent_suit/

Amazon.com goes nuclear on Avis, Orbitz
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Monday 18th July 2005 07:25 GMT
Amazon.com Holdings has launched a legal offensive against a number of
websites including Orbitz and Avis, claiming that they've infringed Amazon
patents.

Both brands are owned by Cendant, the travel and property services giant
with twice the turnover of Amazon. Through Avis and Budget, Cendant owns
owns a third of the car rental market, has interests in property
franchising (Coldwell Banker) and hotel franchising (Days Inn, Travelodge,
Ramada, Super 8), and last year acquired Orbitz.

 The on-off bickering between the two was renewed on June 20, when Cendant
filed suit in a Delaware court claiming that Amazon infringed its patent
6,782,370. The patent, granted last year, is entitled "System and Method
for Providing Recommendation of Goods or Services Based on Recorded
Purchasing History."

Amazon and its search subsidiary A9 responded two days later, claiming
Cendant and subsidiaries infringed on Patents 5,715,399 ("Secure method
and system for communicating a list of credit card numbers over a
non-secure network", filed 1995); 6,629,079 ("Method and system for
electronic commerce using multiple roles", granted 2003) and 6,029,141
("Internet-based customer referral system" filed 1997).

Cendant has sought a jury trial, while Amazon says it has suffered
"irreparable injury and damages, in an amount not yet determined, for
which plaintiffs are entitled to relief".

Jeff Bezos says the patent system is broken, but his statements are
consistently at odds with his company's actions.

Bezos says that business methods patents are particularly bad, but Amazon
has filed patents on a wide variety of business methods, including
affiliates programs, payments, data presentation and and even gift giving.
In an open letter five years ago, Bezos called for a public comment
period, but Amazon.com users non-publication requests that prevent the US
Patent and Trademarks Office from disclosing the application, such as when
it filed to patent a weblog interface.

In his defense, Bezos argues that patents are defensive and should never
be used, and illustrated this when Amazon.com sued rival bookseller Barnes
and Noble for infringing on its notorious One Click patent.

In fact Bezos hates patents so much he has applied for 15 in his own name
of which eight have been granted; as patent-watcher TheoDP noticed
recently, one Amazon patent was granted after five rejections over four
years. And as patent '399 shows, he was busy filing before Amazon.com had
sold a single book.

Clearly, the world needs more crusaders against patent abuse like Jeff
Bezos. =AE




--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
Consumer Project on Technology in London
24, Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX,UK.
Tel:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252.
Mob:+44(0)790 386 4642. Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607
http://www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel.:  1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727