There are a lot of blackhatters doing this, or used to do this, some Google updates can ruin your income. Check out autoblogging. No need for Pay-Per-Download of malicious addons, you can do just fine with other acceptable PPC or CPA
Mix in some SEO and this is not uncommon.
Exactly.
Its pretty amazing when you read all the claims, and imagine dragging and dropping a dozen eggs onto the manifest of a truck that will just happen to be near your house at 7pm every second Wednesday. And then being able to put that delivery on vacation hold, or add a one time order of 12 pork chops for the big barbecue you are planning next Saturday. And the delivery will take place within the time period you specify so the neighbors dog doesn't run off with your chops while you are at work.
Amazon has to know where the trucks will be at future points in time. Provide you with a way to put products on that truck, set them to be periodic or one time, Adjust your orders, add, subtract, reduce, or hold. All from your computer, and (hopefully) from your smartphone.
Its way more ambitious than the Milkman, and I'm not aware of anything that comes close.
People have to stop the knee-jerk reaction to headlines.
The logistical problems Amazon has chosen to deal with aren't covered by the patent.
I'm not arguing that it's a defensible patent, but it's also not patenting what the summary or TFA claims. Here's the #1 core claim of the patent:
1. A computer-implemented method for providing recurring delivery of products, the method comprising performing instructions under the control of a computer system for: receiving at the computer system a designation of a delivery slot and a recurring delivery list comprising one or more list items, each of the one or more list items identifying a product, a quantity to deliver, and a frequency of delivery; periodically generating, by the computer system, an order having a date and time for delivery based on a next occurrence of the delivery slot, the order being generated in advance of the date and time for delivery such that the order has a period of time of pendency prior to the delivery; creating, by the computer system, one or more order items for the order based on a last delivery date and the frequency of delivery of each list item in the recurring delivery list; receiving at the computer system a change made to a first list item of the recurring delivery list during the period of time of pendency of the order; in response to receiving the change, determining, by the computer system, whether the order includes an order item corresponding to the first list item; in response to determining that the order includes an order item corresponding to the first list item, modifying, by the computer system, the order item corresponding to the first list item based on the change made to the first list item of the recurring delivery list; and providing, by the computer system, the order to an order fulfillment system capable of causing the one or more order items to be delivered substantially on the date and time for delivery.
In other words, it's a particular implementation of a subscription system that has to include every element in the above list in order to infringe. It would be easy to work around this in implementing a subscription system. It's also not generally how milkmen used to operate. It's also PROBABLY covered by prior art, but whenever I hear "X just patented Y that's stupid LOLOL!" I have to go to the claims, and I usually see that, no, only a particular implementation/method for accomplishing Y is covered.
You should actually read the list. It covers a computer-controlled system for accepting order lists, and generating the orders before the delivery date so if the customer changes their order or whatever, you don't fuck it completely up. I mean, you can go ahead and 'workaround' checking to see if the customer cancelled, or 'workaround' checking to see that the order is sent out *before* the date the customer wanted it... Those are terrible workarounds though.
Literally. I can have my milkman bring groceries, batteries, pretty much anything a Sam's Club or CostCo would have, periodic or one-time. USPTO is fuckin' uuuuuuup.
Next they'll be patenting sending "thank you" e-mails, letters, or saying "thank you" after a customer purchase.
Technological innovation in the mobile space has been swept aside by marketting innovation.
Precisely. The focus is on the label applied to the technology, rather than on the capabilities of the technology itself.
With your bare hands?!?
