1-Click Explained

1-Click, also called one-click or one-click buying, is the technique of allowing customers to make purchases with the payment information needed to complete the purchase having been entered by the user previously.[1] More particularly, it allows an online shopper using an Internet marketplace to purchase an item without having to use shopping cart software. Instead of manually inputting billing and shipping information for a purchase, a user can use one-click buying to use a predefined address and credit card number to purchase one or more items. Since the expiration of Amazon's patent, there has been an advent of checkout experience platforms, such as ShopPay, Simpler, PeachPay, Zplit, and Bolt which offer similar one-click checkout flows.[2]

Patent

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a patent[3] for this technique to Amazon.com in September 1999. Amazon.com also owns the "1-Click" trademark.[4]

On May 12, 2006, the USPTO ordered a reexamination[5] of the "One-Click" patent, based on a request filed by Peter Calveley.[6] Calveley cited as prior art an earlier e-commerce patent and the Digicash electronic cash system.

On October 9, 2007, the USPTO issued an office action in the reexamination which confirmed the patentability of claims 6 to 10 of the patent.[7] The patent examiner, however, rejected claims 1 to 5 and 11 to 26. In November 2007, Amazon responded by amending the broadest claims (1 and 11) to restrict them to a shopping cart model of commerce. They have also submitted several hundred references for the examiner to consider.[8] In March 2010, the reexamined and amended patent was allowed.[9] [10]

Amazon's U.S. patent expired on September 11, 2017.[11]

In Europe, a patent application[12] on 1-Click ordering was filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) but was rejected by the EPO in 2007 due to obviousness; the decision was upheld in 2011.[13]

A related gift-ordering patent was granted in 2003, but revoked in 2007 following an opposition.[14]

In Canada, the Federal Court of Canada held that the One click patent could not be rejected as a pure business method since it had a physical effect. The Court remanded the application to the Canadian patent office for a reexamination.[15]

Licensing

Apple Inc.

Amazon.com in 2000 licensed 1-Click ordering to Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) for use on its online store.[16] [17] Apple subsequently added 1-Click ordering to the iTunes Store[18] and iPhoto.[19] Apple paid $1 million to license the patent.

Barnes & Noble

Amazon filed a patent infringement lawsuit in October 1999 in response to Barnes & Noble's offering a 1-Click ordering option called "Express Lane". After reviewing the evidence, a judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering Barnes & Noble to stop offering Express Lane until the case was settled.[20] Barnes & Noble had developed a way to design around the patent by requiring shoppers to make a second click to confirm their purchase.[21] [22] The lawsuit was settled in 2002. The terms of the settlement, including whether or not Barnes & Noble took a license to the patent or paid any money to Amazon, were not disclosed.[23]

In response to the lawsuit, the Free Software Foundation urged a boycott of Amazon.com.[24] The boycott was lifted by GNU in September 2002.[25] [26]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Amazon.com Help: About 1-Click Ordering. www.amazon.com.
  2. News: 2022-04-26 . Payment Startup Bolt Sued by Its Most Prominent Customer . en . Bloomberg.com . 2022-04-27.
  3. US. 5960411. 1999-09-28. Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network. Amazon.com Inc.. Hartman. Peri. Bezos. Jeffrey P.. Kaphan. Shel. Spiegel. Joel.
  4. Web site: Nickelsburg . Monica . September 11, 2017 . Amazon's '1-Click' patent expires today, and soon you'll be able to accidentally order stuff across the entire internet .
  5. News: Stephen . Hutcheon. Kiwi actor v Amazon.com . Sydney Morning Herald . May 23, 2006 . November 19, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081211091740/http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/kiwi-actor-v-amazoncom/2006/05/23/1148150224714.html. December 11, 2008 .
  6. Web site: IGDMLGD Blog . November 19, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070925203700/http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/ . September 25, 2007 . live . mdy .
  7. Web site: Examiner Office Action dated Oct 9, 2007 for reexamination serial number 90/007,946 . USPTO . November 19, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090114020637/http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair . January 14, 2009 . live . mdy .
  8. Web site: Amazon surrenders on One-Click shopping monopoly . Out-law.com . November 23, 2007 . November 19, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081211093025/http://www.out-law.com/page-8659. December 11, 2008 .
  9. Web site: Tech Flash. April 13, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100413043447/http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/03/amazons_1-click_patent_confirmed_following_re-exam.html. April 13, 2010. dead. mdy-all.
  10. Web site: Electronista . April 13, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140419191500/http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/03/10/amazon.1.click.patent.confirmed.after.four.years/ . April 19, 2014 . dead . mdy-all .
  11. Web site: Amazon's patent on one-click payments to expire. Business Insider.
  12. application. EP. 1134680. 2001-09-19. Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network. Amazon.com Inc.. Hartman. Peri. Kaphan. Shel. Bezos. Jeffrey P.. Spiegel. Joel., since rejected.
  13. Web site: Jeremy Kirk. Europe Rejects One-click-to-buy Amazon Patent Application. IDG News Service. July 7, 2011.
  14. Web site: EPO revokes Amazon's "Gift Ordering" patent after opposition hearing. December 7, 2007. European Patent Office. May 13, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090604043421/http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2007/20071207.html . June 4, 2009. dead.
  15. Web site: Amazon.com, Inc. and The Attorney General of Canada and The Commissioner of Patents, 2010 FC 1011, October 14, 2010. dead. http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20101104232642/http%3A//www.patentlyo.com/amazon%2Ddot%2Dcom.pdf. November 4, 2010. mdy-all.
  16. News: Wolverton . Troy . Apple licenses Amazon's 1-Click . CNET News.com . September 18, 2000 . November 19, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20090203092304/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-245879.html. February 3, 2009 .
  17. Web site: Apple Licenses Amazon.com 1-Click Patent and Trademark . September 18, 2000 . Apple .
  18. Web site: iTunes Store Terms of Sale . Apple Inc. . November 19, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081207125802/http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/sales.html. December 7, 2008 .
  19. Web site: iPhoto 6.0 Help: Turning 1-Click ordering on and off . Apple Inc. . November 19, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080121062749/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iPhoto%2F6.0%2Fen%2Foc2rem.html . January 21, 2008 . live . mdy .
  20. News: Wolverton, Troy . Amazon, Barnes&Noble settle patent suit . CNET . March 6, 2002 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090730055049/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-854105.html . July 30, 2009 . live . April 20, 2009 . mdy .
  21. Claim 1 of the patent is limited to orders being placed "in response to only a single action being performed"
  22. Web site: My Conversation with Jeff Bezos. O'Reilly Media. December 30, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071218184903/http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/ask_tim/2000/bezos_0300.html. December 18, 2007. dead. mdy-all.
  23. News: Wolverton . Troy . Amazon, Barnes&Noble settle patent suit . CNET . March 6, 2002 . November 19, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20090203023218/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-854105.html. February 3, 2009 .
  24. Web site: Free Software Foundation (fsf)'s status on Tuesday, 13-Oct-2020 15:53:03 UTC . Free Software Foundation.
  25. Web site: (Formerly) Boycott Amazon! . GNU.
  26. Web site: Amazon Advertising. www.adcanyon.com.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1-Click".

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