RE: [mv] Amazon (Patent) US5960411: Method and system for placingapurchase order via a communications

[Birgitt Funk <birgitt@booktraders.com>]

On Thu, 16 Dec 1999, Jeffrey D. Carnahan wrote:

> ******    message to minivend-users from "Jeffrey D. Carnahan" <jcarnahan@networq.com>     ******
> 
> You can get more information about reaction to the Amazon patent and news
> about the patent from:
> 
> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/02/0915226&mode=nested
> http://slashdot.org/articles/99/10/22/0959240.shtml
> http://slashdot.org/articles/99/10/12/1826242.shtml
> 
> --
> Warmest Regards...
> __________________________________________________________________
> Jeff Carnahan                                    CTO Networq, Inc.
> 
> Hi Ed,
> 
> thank you for your comments! Do you know more information about this
> patent and comments or reactions from other people/magazin?
> 
> Hmmm...it seems me, Mike Heins was the first person with his
> one-click-yxz-Methode (or he has get this methodes since 1997 or with
> minivend version 3.06) earlier than amazom.com. Am i right?


hmm, reading the patent itsself

	http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=
	HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=
	'5960411'.WKU.&OS=PN/5960411&RS=PN/5960411

and the third one of the given URLs by Jeff
	
        Seattle-based Amazon (AMZN) said the system copies its 1-Click
	feature, which allows customers to enter their credit card number and
	address just once, avoiding the need to re-enter that data on follow-up
	visits to the Amazon site. 
        Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement the online book and
	music seller spent "thousands of hours" to develop the system. A
	company source told CNNfn.com that the 1-Click system cost
	millions of dollars to develop. 

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/991012/wa_amazon__1.html:
     
	Amazon.com Receives Patent for 1-Click
	Amazon.Com Holiday Shopping Season Also Features Gift-Click and Wish Li
        st SEATTLE, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading online retailer
        Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN - news) has been awarded a patent for its
        innovative 1-Click service, which allows customers to shop
        conveniently without entering their shipping and billing
        information every time they buy.

	(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990527/AMZNLOGO2 )

my 0.02 cents:

1.)
I think I used Mike Heins' one-page/one-click checkout page (at least
I remembered having written up my own html version of a one-page/one-click 
checkout page) and this was before September 1997. 8-)

So, I am pretty sure that already in the end of 1996 the one-click
ckeckout page was part of MV and most probably one old version of
a simple catalog from any of the older releases had it already.
But with the case of MH's feeping creaturitis my memory (or understanding)
might be blurred.

2.)
Besides that I do wish Barnes & Nobles luck winning the case, I am
just happy that Amazon paid 1 Million dollars to develop their system
and unhappy that he didn't pay MH to do the job. 8-) May be he would
have given Bezos a little discount...he sure gave me one, so who is
the smart one here, hey ? ... 8-)

3.) 
Others/you may judge if there is anything real unique 
and "Amazon"-specific in the one-click checkout of their site, but if that
is doubtful, I wonder how many companies Amazon would have to sue
to get them all. May be all those should join into a complaint
supporting B&N in this case (though certainly B&N is not what I consider
an Independent Bookstore), but at least it's a bookseller who has
stores.

And not an online warehouse for "mixed item" as people on
the Int. Frankfurter Bookfair put it in a discussion with the 
subject: 
	Can these days online booksellers only survive if they
	become an "Online Tante Emma Laden fur Gemischtwaren" 
	(that is aunt Emma's convenient store around the corner who 
	sells everything). 

BOL and Amazon.de representatives smiled at each other very politely
in Frankfort....I think Amazon had just introduced the sale of soap or 
something like that on their site ...

Sorry for this off-topic remarks, just couldn't resist...

But I really would like to know when the first one-click checkout
code was written.

Birgitt Funk