Amazon May Lose ‘1-Click’ Patent

Amazon may be one patent poorer after the US Patent Office decimated its claim to the “1-Click” shopping cart emblem yesterday—throwing into question a 1999 infringement settlement with Barnes & Noble. The online orderer will have a chance to re-write its application, Ars Technica reports, but stands to lose the patent altogether after the patent office rejected 21 of its original 26 claims.

Disgruntled customer Peter Calveley initiated the campaign after a tardy order, and dug up evidence of prior “1-Click” art, then raised money online to pay the fee needed to challenge the 1997 patent.  "I wasn't frothing at the mouth to destroy them," Calveleley told the web site Out-Law.com last year, after filing his complaint. Still, he added, "They deserve to be smacked down." (More Amazon.com stories.)