Monday, October 23, 2006

IBM Sues Amazon Over Patents - WSJ.com

Interesting to see this sort of action in these days of open source and blatant copyright violation. 

International Business Machines Inc. said it filed two patent infringement lawsuits against Amazon.com Inc., claiming key aspects of the Internet retailer's Web sites violate patents held by Big Blue.

IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y., said it is seeking unspecified damages from the Seattle online retailer for infringing on five patents, including technologies that govern how the site handles customer recommendations, advertising and data storage.

[...]

Both companies have relied heavily on patents. IBM is the world's leading patent holder, while Amazon famously patented its "one-click" checkout method in 1999. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is re-examining that patent, which has long been criticized as overly broad.

Tangentially, some market caps at the moment:

AMZN: $13.6B

CSCO: $148B

IBM: $139.8B

GOOG: $143.8B

HPQ: $109.5B

Strange days indeed.

Source: IBM Sues Amazon Over Patents - WSJ.com

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