Amazon.com has been sued by a subsidiary of travel and real
estate giant Cendant over a feature on its web site that recommends
books to customers based on purchases they, or other purchasers,
have made in the past.
Cendant Publishing alleges that Amazon.com's service infringes a patent granted in August this year. That patent, according to its summary, relates to:
"A computer-implemented method and system utilising a distributed network for the recommendation of goods and/or services to potential costumers based on a potential customer's selection of goods and/or services and a database of previous customer purchasing history".
According to reports, the suit asks the court to grant a jury trial and seeks damages and an injunction against continuing patent infringement.
Amazon.com is no stranger to patent suits, the most famous being a dispute with rival book seller Barnes & Noble.com over Amazon.com's 1-Click patent – which allows its customers to make repeat purchases at the site with just one mouse click.
More recently, Amazon.com was among several companies sued by the British Technology Group over alleged infringements of patents relating to the tracking of the navigational path of a user through the internet. That case is continuing.
Neither Amazon.com nor Cendant have commented on the new action.
