FFII
Amazon one-click patent still lingering in Europe after 15 years
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Munich, 15 January 2013 – The king of trivial software and business methods patents, Amazon’s “one-click gift order”, is still not dead in Europe. After 15 years of existence, the European Patent Office (EPO) today revoked it on precarious grounds which warrant another appeal. This patent EP0927945 was already revoked once in 2007, after being granted in 2003. However the Technical Board of Appeal (TBA) revived the patent in 2009 and resubmitted it to the Opposition Division, because the “single action” (one click) had not yet be proven to be known in the prior art. In today’s hearing, the Opposition Division considered this feature both patentable and novel, but not inventive.