“The cyber giant finds itself in the center of a growing
storm as companies rip its proprietary patent claims.”
“Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. came under increasing pressure
Tuesday to back off from patent claims on “obvious” business
ideas.”
“This time the criticism came from an old ally, Timothy
O’Reilly, president and CEO of computer book publisher O’Reilly
& Associates.”
“In an open letter to Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), O’Reilly
criticized the company for patenting ideas that he said were as
obvious as ‘1-click ordering’ and an ‘affiliate program.'”
“‘Once the Web becomes fenced in by competing patents and other
attempts to make this glorious open playing field into a
proprietary wasteland, the springs of further innovation will dry
up,’ O’Reilly wrote. ‘In short, I think you are pissing in the
well.'”