Submission + - Amazon backs down over patent battle with Kiwi (smh.com.au)
An anonymous reader writes: The Kiwi actor who challenged Amazon.com over its long-held patent for no fuss online shopping, is claiming "mission accomplished" in his three-year battle with the web-based retailing giant.
According to documents lodged in the aftermath of an adverse ruling handed down last month by the US Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO), Amazon has proposed amendments to its claim over the famous 1 Click patent.
Those changes, according to Auckland-based Peter Calveley, amounts to a narrowing down of claims over the patented payments process, leaving it open to many more people to use or adapt for use.
Calveley says this is just the outcome he was hoping for when he set off on in his one-man campaign to challenge Amazon's patent in 2004.
"This breaks the monopoly of shopping with one click," Calveley said in a telephone interview. "It's exactly what I wanted. Victory, woo hoo!"
He says that evidence he presented to the USPTO that Amazon did not invent the process was "so clear and so compelling" that the company was forced to back down on its claim over the patent.
The draft amendments still need to be formally accepted by Amazon, but as the compromise emerged after talks with the patent examiner at the USPTO, it seems likely that they will be ratified.
