Motivation

1. analyze the subject matter claimed by 1-click;
2. identify prior art;
3. identify keywords to find prior art.

Note that Peter is still looking for donations to pay the reexamination fee. Click on the Paypal button of this page to donate.

Family

1. the one-click scope relating to the capability to buy an item without checking out a shopping cart and filling a form with payment and shipping data;
2. the gift scope relating to the capability to order a gift without entering comprehensive shipping data.

1-click patent

Claim 1 reads

• under control of a client system,
  • displaying information identifying the item; and
  • in response to only a single action being performed, sending a request to order the item along with an identifier of a purchaser of the item to a server system;
• under control of a single-action ordering component of the server system,
  • receiving the request;
  • retrieving additional information previously stored for the purchaser identified by the identifier in the received request; and
  • generating an order to purchase the requested item for the purchaser identified by the identifier in the received request using the retrieved additional information; and
  • fulfilling the generated order to complete purchase of the item
• whereby the item is ordered without using a shopping cart ordering model.

1. 09/151,617 filed on 09-11-1998 which is Pending claims the benefit of 08/928,951.
2. 09/318,447 filed on 05-25-1999 which is Pending claims the benefit of 08/928,951.
3. 10/194,602 filed on 07-12-2002 which is Pending claims the benefit of 08/928,951.
4. PCT/US98/18926 filed on 09-10-1998 which is Pending claims the benefit of 08/928,951.

References

09/151,617

The examiner made a non-final rejection. He found that 09/151,617 was obvious over 5,826,242.

The Amazon attorney replied that:

• claims are "directed to techniques in which a user orders an item (eg., a gift) that is to be sent to a recipient,"
• claims "make it clear that additionnal information is collected from sources other than the user who orders the item,
• claims "recite that additionnal information is collected from sources other than the user who places the order."

The Amazon attorney filed an appeal in which he wrote that the invention relates to a technology allowing a user to place a purchase order with a vendor over a network without providing complete delivery information (eg., a delivery address) for a recipient of the order.

09/046,503

09/318,447

10/194,602

A method in a computer system for coordinating the delivery a gift given by a gift giver to a recipient, the method comprising:

• receiving an order from the gift giver, the order identifying a gift to be delivered to the recipient and having contact information describing the recipient;
• storing the received order in an order database along with an order tracking number;
• sending a communications to the recipient based on the contact information, the communications requesting delivery information for the gift, the communications including the order tracking number so that the recipient can include the order tracking number in a responds to the communications for identification of the stored order;
• when the recipient does not respond to the communications, collecting additional delivery information for the gift based on the contact information;
• when potential delivery information for the gift has been identified, verifying whether the potential delivery information is valid; and
• when the delivery location has been verified as being valid, sending the gift in accordance with the delivery information; and notifying the gift giver that the gift has been sent to the recipient.

The attorney requested an interview finding that 5,970,474 teaches a electronic bridal list in which there was no reason to ask the recipient (here the registrant) to confirm the delivery address.

Amazon attorney found that 6,085,170 does not teach a use of email for getting delivery information.

5,826,242

Claim 1 reads

• sending a first request by said browser to a merchant server for a first HTML document describing a product;
• displaying said HTML document on said client computer, said displayed HTML document describing said product;
• selecting, by said customer, said product;
• sending a second request by said browser to said merchant server in response to said selection made by said customer;
• sending a state object from said merchant server to said browser, said state object identifying said product; and
• storing said state object on said client computer by said browser."

References

5,870,717

Claim 1 reads

• a maintenance entity. located outside said enterprise, for receiving price and availability data from a plurality of distributors and means for receiving and processing images and text of catalog data from a plurality of catalog content providers for creating and maintaining one or more electronic master catalogs in a central location for subsequent distribution to a plurality of shadow catalog servers distributed throughout said enterprise, where said shadow servers contain data representing a customized electronic catalogue from said master catalogs, over a computer network, said maintenance entity comprises:
  • means for constructing said customized catalog from said master catalogs;
  • means for receiving a supplier's price and catalog availability changes from a plurality of said distributors and propagating them to one or more selected buyers over said computer network;
  • means for receiving catalog changes from a plurality of said catalog content providers and propagating them to one or more selected buyers over said computer network;
• one or more computer systems, maintained by said maintenance entity, and having means for creating and transmitting to a plurality of shadow catalog servers within said enterprise, images and text of a plurality of catalog items offered by said content provider and price and availability data from said suppliers; said enterprise comprises:
  • a plurality of first end-user computer systems geographically distributed throughout said enterprise comprising a user interface and able to access disk storage on said shadow catalog server, and having means for electronically ordering said catalog items from said shadow catalog servers;
  • said shadow catalog servers, which comprise a second computer system whose disk storage can be accessed over a local area network by one or more first end-user's computers; said disk storage being used to hold and maintain (1) one or more customized electronic catalogs, and (2) internal program code comprising a Catalog Browser capable of transmitting purchase orders to a master buyer and server, and having means for allowing an end user to view said customized electronic catalog in order to facilitate comparisons between catalog items from several suppliers, and in permitting orders to be generated containing items from several suppliers;
  • said master buyer server comprising a third computer system located within said enterprise containing (1) purchase order workflow software comprising an order manager and a purchase order workflow which takes purchase orders from one or more end user computers and controls their flow through said enterprise's business processes before transmitting them over a network to the supplier; and (2) a Purchase Order data base; and
  • means for said master buyer server to receive information from and transmit information to said supplier.

References

5,970,474

Claim 1 reads

• a local area network;
• a handheld product selection device directly in communication with said local area network via wireless communication for identifying desired items selected by a registrant;
• a host computer providing a registry database in communication with said local area network;
• a data processor in communication with said local area network adapted to communicate with the product selection device via said local area network to thereby collect the desired items selected by the registrant and route said desired items to said registry database on said host computer;
• a registry retrieval device in communication with said local area network configured to retrieve updated registry data from the host computer in response to a request from a purchasing customer, said retrieval device having an output unit for displaying an updated list of items in the registry database;
• a point-of-sale data input device in communication with said local area network for identifying desired items which have been purchased by a customer for routing to said host computer;
• a registry input device in communication with said local area network for collecting general information from a registrant desiring to create said registry database; and
• said host computer having a storage unit for maintaining the registry database and a data processor for processing selection and purchasing transactions, wherein desired items consecutively selected by the registrant are added to the registry database to create a registry list, and desired items purchased by the customer are associated with the registry database to create an updated list reflecting the purchase of said desired items.

References

5,860,068

Claim 1 reads:

1. selecting a set of digital data files in the disk farm;
2. identifying one of the set of burner machines to be used in manufacturing the product;
3. transferring each of the digital data files of the set to the identified machine;
4. isolating the identified machine from interference; and
5. recording the digital data files of the set to a physical medium.

References

5,513,117

Claim 1 reads:

1. remotely interconnecting a central terminal and a remotely located interactive terminal;
2. displaying a menu of alphanumeric and/or graphic information on a monitor at the interactive terminal from which a customer at the interactive terminal can select data to be used to personalize said card;
3. prompting the customer to select said card data and/or add personal information via a data input means at the interactive terminal to create personalized greeting card data for said card;
4. displaying on said interactive terminal monitor a menu of gift categories accessible via prepaid long distance telephone access accounts and a plurality of gift values from which a customer can select a particular gift category at a selected value via said data input means;
5. prompting the customer to select said gift category and said value via said data input means;
6. creating, at said central terminal, a greeting card with said personalized greeting card data;
7. associating with said greeting card information concerning said selected telephone access account including a predetermined telephone number for accessing said prepaid long distance account and account authorizing data; and
8. forwarding the card and the associated gift information to the customer or a recipient.

References

6,085,170

Claim 1 reads:

References

5,737,729

Claim 1 reads

1. a kiosk having a communication means including a selection means for prompting said customer to select one of said plurality of mail pieces and an input means for receiving customer entered data to be included on said selected mail piece said input means includes an automatic address search means for searching a database of addresses to match parameters entered by said customer;
2. a control means supported in kiosk for controlling said communication means and for storing customer entered data; and
3. a finishing means for finishing said selected mail piece with said customer entered data.

References

EP0927945

1. 08/928,951 (1-click)
2. 09/046,503 (abandoned)

A method in a computer system for co-ordinating delivery of a gift from a gift giver to a recipient, the gift and recipient being specified in a gift order, the method comprising:

• determining whether the gift order includes sufficient information so that the gift can be delivered to the recipient;
• when sufficient information is not provided in the gift order, obtaining delivery information from one or more information sources; and
• when sufficient delivery information can be obtained from the additional information sources so that the gift can be delivered to the recipient, directing the gift to be sent to the recipient as indicated by the deliver information.

1. EP0902381 from Amazon
2. EP0845747 from Hitachi
3. WO9530961 from Tackbary
4. 5,451,998 from Hamrick

• "Fleurop-Interflora is the world market leader and best known flower ordering service in Europe, supported by over 58,000 carefully selected affiliated flower shops in over 150 countries."
• "The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a non-profit association registered in several European countries, which is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. FFII supports the development of public information goods based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 650 members, 3,000 companies and 90,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing."
• "Founded 1969 in Bonn, the Gesellschaft fur Informatik e.V. (GI) has currently about 25.000 members, coming from all areas of business and science. United in this non-profit organization to promote informatics where ever it is used. This is the arena to exchange ideas between people with completely different experiences being either manager or user, professor or student, entrepreneur or apprentice. But GI is far more then just a classic scientific society. Not only supporting the interests of its members, scientific work is done in a decentralized way in all kinds of regional based groups and councils covering various topics on different levels of expertise. And even more important, GI following its charter and ethic principles, invests time and effort to play an important role spreading information about informatics, by this means being an active player in the present and future of society."

1. an article of the Bell System Technical Journal entitled "Language Development tool" that describes lex and yacc;
2. 5,737,729 that was found too recent according to Amazon
3. a Japanese patent 04-153795;
4. 5,555,496

EP0902381

Claim 1 reads:

• under control of the server system,
  • receiving purchaser information including identification of the purchaser, payment information, and shipment information from the client system;
  • assigning a client identifier to the client system;
  • associating the assigned client identifier with the received purchaser information;
  • sending to the client system the assigned client identifier; and
  • sending to the client system display information identifying the item and including an order button;
• under control of the client system,
  • receiving and storing the assigned client identifier;
  • receiving and displaying the display information; and
  • in response to the selection of the order button, sending to the server system a request to purchase the identified item, the request including the assigned identifier; and
• under control of the server system,
  • receiving the request; and
  • combining the purchaser information associated with the client identifier included with the request to generate an order to purchase the item in accordance with the billing and shipment information
• whereby the purchaser effects the ordering of the product by selection of the order button.

1. 08/928,951 (1-click)
2. 09/046,503 (abandoned)

1. WO9638799 from Amazon
2. WO9821679 from Microsoft
3. EP0883076
4. EP0845747 from Hitachi
5. WO9530961 from Tackbary

1. EP0883076
2. WO9821679 from Microsoft
3. an article of Dr Dobbs' entitled "Implementing a Web Shopping Cart" by Chris Baron and Bob Weil included in the September 1996 issue. This paper explains that a shopping cart implies:
   1. a database of text and graphics describing the items in the catalog;
   2. an efficient mechanism to display the items on demand;
   3. a process to collect shipping and payment information;
   4. a method of tracking items the user wishes to purchase;
   5. a way to identify the user, and a way to group a series of HTTP requests into a single "session."
4. WO9530961 from Tackbary

Amazon addressed the EP0883076 objection in the following way:

The examiner sent a second examination in which he found that the Dr Dobbs article taught:

Amazon replied that the Dr Dobbs article did not teach omitting the checkout form.

EP0845747

Claim 1 reads:

• a client for providing at least a schedule information of the receiver;
• a distribution server for providing at least a delivery schedule information and for managing the delivery of the goods;
• an agent server for managing the commission on the goods by the agent;
• a data transmission network interconnecting said client, said agent server and said distribution server;
• means for determining the date and time for delivery of the goods, or for deciding the agent to be used, between said client and said distribution server, or among said client, said distribution server and said agent server; and
• means for noticing of store-in and/or store-out of the goods into and/or from the agent to at least one of said distribution server and said client.

References in Europe

References in USA (6,085,170)

WO9530961

Claim 1 reads:

1. storing data in one or more databases, the data including recipient data and social expression card data;
2. linking the recipient data with the social expression card data thereby forming linked data to facilitate the on-going management, selection, and delivery of the social expression cards;
3. providing a user interface to permit a user to access the data to permit the user to manage, select, and facilitate the delivery of the social expression cards;
4. receiving and accepting a social expression card order from the user, the social expression card order indicating a user-selected method of delivering the social expression card; and
5. delivering the social expression card to a recipient according to the user-selected method of delivery.

References

References in USA (5,960,412)

5,451,998

Claim 1 reads:

• a video catalog containing a plurality of product images representing products available for purchase and containing product identification corresponding to each product image, the product images being for electronic display for viewing by a customer;
• an order form containing product identification which corresponds to the said product image in said video catalog, said order form comprising product names, and said order form being organized and indexed for quick reference by the customer by arranging the product names in alphabetical order with the corresponding product identification being listed beside each product name;
• means for indicating on said order form the product identification of the products desired for purchase from the products available for purchase; and
• means for transmitting said order form indicating the product identification of products desired for purchase to a merchandiser of said products.

References

WO9638799

Claim 1 reads:

1. retrieving the credit card number of the customer from the database;
2. extracting a portion of the credit card number, said portion being substantially smaller than the complete credit card number;
3. constructing a message containing the portion of the credit card number; and
4. transmitting the message to the customer over the non-secure network.

WO9821679

Claim 1 reads:

• a Web browser application configured to run on a computer;
• a commerce client application configured to run on the computer in conjunction with the Web browser application, the commerce client application including a callable function, said callable function comprising executable computer instructions stored on a computer storage medium accessible by the computer;
• an electronic shopping basket object configured to access and manipulate product information and merchant information stored on the computer storage medium, the access and manipulation initiated by executing the callable function of the commerce client application; and
• a Web document which includes embedded function-calling information that corresponds to the callable function of the commerce client application, the function-calling information embedded within the Web document such that a user can selectively initiate the execution of the callable function while viewing the Web document with the Web browser.

References

EP0883076

Claim 1 reads:

1. means for receiving from a customer access requests for the contents available at a specific contents server site;
2. means for identifying said customer;
3. means for identifying an owner of said contents, the location of said contents, a price for said contents, and a destination for said contents for reckoning a sale;
4. means for, rather than said customer, accessing said contents;
5. means for transmitting from said access charge server to said customer said contents that have been transferred from said contents server to said access charge server; and
6. means for subtracting said price for said contents from information for said customer at said access charge server, and for adding said price of said contents to information for said destination for reckoning for a sale.

5,504,933

Claim 1 reads:

• said broadcasting station transmits an open program number together with a broadcasting program scrambled by a scramble pattern changed for each program;
• said charging center sends a use permit code for using a pay program in response to a request for using executed through a communication line by specifying said open program number and also collects a fee for said pay program; and
• a receiving device descrambles a received pay program according to said use permit code upon receipt of said use permit code.

5,555,496

Claim 1 reads

1. a customer access terminal at each remote site having
   1. an input device for customer input and selection of card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data,
   2. memory device for storage of data in the form of data records, including the card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data,
   3. display means for displaying textual and graphical information representative of the card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data,
   4. a processor coupled to the display means, memory device, and input device for processing and controlling display of the card recipient data, recipient occasion data, card design data, and card selection data to facilitate card selection and ordering for generating a card order responsive thereto, and for generating and storing in the memory, records of order history and order status, said card recipient data, order history data, order status data, and recipient occasion data operatively linked to facilitate on-going management of card selection and card delivery by the customer with respect to each recipient of the customer; and
2. a communications link coupling the customer access terminal to the distribution center to permit communication of the card order to the distribution center for processing of the card order.

References