Amazon had been granted a European patent for its invention, but
this was opposed by an Interflora company, the German Society of
Information Sciences and the Foundation for Free Information
Infrastructure.
The EPO has ruled on the opposition and has found that the
patent should not stand. "One of the opposition’s main arguments
against the patent – among others – was that it fell short of
meeting the criteria of providing an 'inventive step', as defined
in Article 56 of the European Patent Convention (EPC)," said an EPO
statement. "On these grounds, the three opposing parties asked for
the patent to be revoked."
Amazon was recently forced to narrow a US patent for its
shopping system, known as the 'one click' patent. This covered the
ability of shoppers to purchase items with just one mouse click and
it was opposed by an amateur patent enthusiast in New Zealand who
raise the funds for the action from readers of his blog.
Peter Calveley objected to the patent and filed a re-examination
request, citing examples he had found of 'prior art', which is the
term for evidence that a claimed invention was not in fact new. He
had found examples of similar systems that predated Amazon's
patent.
The US Patent and Trademarks Office then rejected most of the
patent's claims. The EPO decision is a further blow to Amazon.
The newly rejected patent covered a system which allows a
customer to buy a gift for a person giving just that person's email
address. Amazon then emails the gift recipient for details of a
physical address.
The EPO pointed out in a statement that it had never granted the
'one click' patent, which it said was withdrawn after its first
examination.
