http://www.google.com/patents?q=online+payment&btnG=Search+Patents http://www.google.com/patents?q=online+payment&btnG=Sear... Pretty much all of these are idio

http://www.google.com/patents?q=online+payment&btnG=Search+Patents http://www.google.com/patents?q=online+payment&btnG=Sear... Pretty much all of these are idiotic. See also: http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com/2011/04/patent-5893120-reduced-to-mathematical.html http://paulspontifications.blogspot.com/2011/04/patent-58931... Software patents are stupid because you're trying to patent A WAY OF DOING SOMETHING and not A PRODUCT, even if said product is built from ways of doing something. Example: I patent "A method for storing data on physical storage using blocks" and sue everyone. There are people who try to patent RAM and storage: http://www.google.com/patents?q=a+method+for+storing+data&btnG=Search+Patents http://www.google.com/patents?q=a+method+for+storing+data&#3... I'd wager that most of those are invalid patents / should be abolished.