Amazon pisses me off

No, really, Amazon really pisses me off.
And it’s not about their products, nor their prices, not even their customer policy. No. As you probably guessed it from my previous writings , the real reason Amazon pisses me off is their patents.

No, I’m not saying that all patents are wrong. As you could read in some of my comments (if you understood Romanian), I find IP (Intelectual Property) a necessary thing in a world where creators want to have food. But Amazon still pisses me off.

Because they don’t just apply for patents. Because they don’t just invent stuff. But because they “invent” and subsequently patent the obvious. They patent the wheel, they patent the fire. Really, while some complex real-time face recognition algorithm would be elligit for patents, since the creators spent many years figuring it out, what Amazon patents is the obvious. The shotcut. Or just the “state of the art”.

I really don’t understand how any insane person would ever grant them patent rights over “inventions” as stupid as theirs. Perhaps it’s because of the “legal” jargon that nobody except their lawyers understand. But Amazon really are dicks: over the years they patented one click shopping , Methods and systems of assisting users in purchasing items , making gifts to other people , recommending stuff based on your history, and many more, more than I can find out on the spot.

And, just lately, they overdid it:
Amazon gets patent on user reviews . And not just that, but some more as well: methods of forming circles and marketing to them (see previous link) and last, but not the least, method of discovering and delivering as search results related products from multiple categories . Oh, really?

Come on, guys, it’s getting over our heads. It’s getting over everybody’s head. Patents for writing reviews? Patents for suggesting stuff in other categories? Patents for fast e-shopping? Patents for groups of similar interests? When is it going to stop? Should I just quit my carreer as a software developer and chose something lawyers won’t ever bother me with? Should we all just step back and leave the lawyers patent the fire? Or the computer? Or the Internet?

PS. I heard somewhere that the smileys are also patented. Or trademarked. Or copyrighted. Whatever.

Update
After receiving an email from Peter , I took the time to research the trademarks concerning the smiley. Looks (Wikipedia ) like the smiley itself failed to be trademarked (youpie… ). The Frowny , however, was successfully trademarked. by Despair.Inc for “greeting cards, posters and art prints”.

Until I hear otherwise, I’ll just use the >: sign. You should add the extra ( . Or the ).

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