5 ms·

Seems more likely that Amazon got this patent to prevent some other brick and mortar store from acquiring it and blocking Amazon.com.

opportune 9y ago
Yeah, just like that oh-so-reasonable 1-click purchase they patented. Good thing they never abused that patent.
- Sylphine 9y ago
  Great joke. I chuckled
- mxfh 9y ago
  Who knew this expires in 88 days on September 12th. 20 years already.
- cookiecaper 9y ago
  While it's true that a business won't shy away from leaning on its intellectual property to beat out competitors when necessary, it is also true that having your own strong patent portfolio is one of the best defenses against patent lawsuits from competitors and (some types of) patent trolls. It's sort of a mutually-assured destruction thing, where they won't sue you over X because they know you could sue them over Y. There is also the possibility that if you don't file the patent, someone else will, and it's better for you to be in control of that property than to leave it for someone who is potentially much worse to obtain. This is pretty much the dilemma involved in any willful abdication or refusal to seize property/power. It's particularly relevant to competent engineers who opt out of office politics because they dislike the BS, which means the task is left to the incompetent. This results in suffering for everyone. If something is under your control, even if you're not actively doing much with it, you're preventing an adversary from taking it instead.
- Animats 9y ago
  That was very clever. The insight was to make both buying and undoing the buy easy. For a few minutes after an Amazon one-click buy, you can undo it. That's what made one-click purchases non-scary. Most E-commerce systems still don't get this. Once you've clicked "buy", it's "Mwaaah, we have your money now, sucker!"
  - ryandrake 9y ago
    Granted this is a totally inadequate solution, but in all cases where I've made an online order from a reputable seller and wanted to cancel it before it shipped, I have been able to call the business over the phone, provide them with the invoice number, and successfully cancel the order. I've only had problems in cases where "I should have known better than to order on that site" to begin with.
    - Animats 9y ago
      "Due to unusually high call volume..."
    - sbierwagen 9y ago
      I'm perfectly fine calling someone on the phone, but many other millennials strongly dislike phone conversations.
      - pilsetnieks 9y ago
        Every reputable seller also has email. In Amazon's case you don't even need that, you just need to click a button.
        sbierwagen 9y ago
        In Amazon's case you don't even need that, you just need to click a button. Yes, that was the point of the thread. On Amazon's site, order cancellations are automated and can be done on the website, while for many other online stores you have to contact a human to do it manually.
- jsight 9y ago
  Not to be harsh at all, but I think that you may have misread his point. Its not that Amazon is unwilling to use a patent for evil, its that the "evil" purpose in this case is the opposite of the usual case. It is very much in Amazon's best interest for competitors never to deploy a technology like this. I'm sure that lots of people have placed Amazon orders from inside of Target stores after seeing cheaper prices at Amazon.com, for example. This could be a offensive patent in the since that they could aggressively pursue anyone who implements it, while never implementing it themselves.
oh_sigh 9y ago
It's hard to say what any random patent means in terms of Amazon's larger business interests. When I worked there(and I'm sure it is still the case today), we were encouraged to bring any kind of novel idea we had to the patent team, and they would take care of the rest.

opportune 9y ago

Yeah, just like that oh-so-reasonable 1-click purchase they patented. Good thing they never abused that patent.

Sylphine 9y ago
Great joke. I chuckled
mxfh 9y ago
Who knew this expires in 88 days on September 12th. 20 years already.
cookiecaper 9y ago
While it's true that a business won't shy away from leaning on its intellectual property to beat out competitors when necessary, it is also true that having your own strong patent portfolio is one of the best defenses against patent lawsuits from competitors and (some types of) patent trolls. It's sort of a mutually-assured destruction thing, where they won't sue you over X because they know you could sue them over Y. There is also the possibility that if you don't file the patent, someone else will, and it's better for you to be in control of that property than to leave it for someone who is potentially much worse to obtain. This is pretty much the dilemma involved in any willful abdication or refusal to seize property/power. It's particularly relevant to competent engineers who opt out of office politics because they dislike the BS, which means the task is left to the incompetent. This results in suffering for everyone. If something is under your control, even if you're not actively doing much with it, you're preventing an adversary from taking it instead.
Animats 9y ago
That was very clever. The insight was to make both buying and undoing the buy easy. For a few minutes after an Amazon one-click buy, you can undo it. That's what made one-click purchases non-scary. Most E-commerce systems still don't get this. Once you've clicked "buy", it's "Mwaaah, we have your money now, sucker!"
- ryandrake 9y ago
  Granted this is a totally inadequate solution, but in all cases where I've made an online order from a reputable seller and wanted to cancel it before it shipped, I have been able to call the business over the phone, provide them with the invoice number, and successfully cancel the order. I've only had problems in cases where "I should have known better than to order on that site" to begin with.
  - Animats 9y ago
    "Due to unusually high call volume..."
  - sbierwagen 9y ago
    I'm perfectly fine calling someone on the phone, but many other millennials strongly dislike phone conversations.
    - pilsetnieks 9y ago
      Every reputable seller also has email. In Amazon's case you don't even need that, you just need to click a button.
      - sbierwagen 9y ago
        In Amazon's case you don't even need that, you just need to click a button. Yes, that was the point of the thread. On Amazon's site, order cancellations are automated and can be done on the website, while for many other online stores you have to contact a human to do it manually.
jsight 9y ago
Not to be harsh at all, but I think that you may have misread his point. Its not that Amazon is unwilling to use a patent for evil, its that the "evil" purpose in this case is the opposite of the usual case. It is very much in Amazon's best interest for competitors never to deploy a technology like this. I'm sure that lots of people have placed Amazon orders from inside of Target stores after seeing cheaper prices at Amazon.com, for example. This could be a offensive patent in the since that they could aggressively pursue anyone who implements it, while never implementing it themselves.

oh_sigh 9y ago

It's hard to say what any random patent means in terms of Amazon's larger business interests. When I worked there(and I'm sure it is still the case today), we were encouraged to bring any kind of novel idea we had to the patent team, and they would take care of the rest.