CNET: Amazon wins patent for ordering forms

Amazon.com Tuesday received a patent for using existing customer records to accelerate the purchase of something online by filling in details, like billing information. The abstract, included in the extended version of this story, seems to suggest this is Amazon's "One-Click" ordering system, without the focus on their needing to be just one click. Barnes & Noble ran afoul of Amazon a few years ago by including a one-click purchase feature on its site. It settled the ensuing legal action by creating a system that involved more than one click.

This new patent, first filed in 1997 and examined by Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) employee Wayne Amsbury, may put many tens of thousands of additional sites in theoretical violation of Amazon's intellectual property, which, if the PTO continues its generosity to the Seattle e-tailer, will soon include claims on eating (while looking at the Internet), breathing (while on the Internet) and adjusting one's screen contrast (on computers with access to the Internet).

Wayne Amsbury was also responsible for examining last years Amazon patent that granted it exclusive rights to the "novel" technology of customizing web site content to individuals based on which links they click.

The abstract from patent 6,615,226:

A method and system for placing an order to purchase an item via theInternet. The order is placed by a purchaser at a client system andreceived by a server system. The server system receives purchaserinformation including identification of the purchaser, paymentinformation, and shipment information from the client system. The serversystem then assigns a client identifier to the client system andassociates the assigned client identifier with the received purchaser information. The server system sends to the client system the assignedclient identifier and an HTML document identifying the item and includingan order button. The client system receives and stores the assigned clientidentifier and receives and displays the HTML document. In response to theselection of the -order button, the client system sends to the serversystem a request to purchase the identified item. The server systemreceives the request and combines the purchaser information associatedwith the client identifier of the client system to generate an order topurchase the item in accordance with the billing and shipment informationwhereby the purchaser effects the ordering of the product by selection ofthe order button.