Firstly, by the time Groupon got the patent it would've been irrelevant. It takes years. Secondly, being in Germany (ie the EU) software patents are largely u

Firstly, by the time Groupon got the patent it would've been irrelevant. It takes years. Secondly, being in Germany (ie the EU) software patents are largely unenforceable [1] anyway. Software patents are almost uniquely a US problem, despite lobbying efforts to introduce them in Europe, Australia and other places. But my point is that whether or not Groupon applied for a patent in this case is basically irrelevant. The story about software patents is they may end up driving Internet businesses, which are highly portable, to jurisdictions more friendly to their activities. The only beneficiaries of software patents are lawyers and patent trolls (who have nothing to lose by definition because they don't produce anything). What would be ironic would be if a Troll patented the business model of filing and buying patents by the truckload and then suing possible infringers right before suing every other patent troll. Oh and regarding Google's PageRank (mentioned elsewhere in this thread), the patent is basically defensive. It doesn't really disclose the details of it such that it could be easily reproduced. Plus, even if it did, there's an awful lot more you'd need to do to mimic Google. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_under_the_European_Patent_Convention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_under_the_Euro...