Podcast: Amazon’s “one-click purchasing” Patent Battle

The official blog of Search Engine by Jesse Brown recently featured a very informative podcast discussing the implications of Amazon’s 13-year “one click” ordering system patent dispute in Canada, which can potentially be concluded very soon. Amazon has held this patent in the U.S. for many years now, but here in Canada, Amazon was denied the patent in 2009. Amazon appealed the decision, of course, and the case has made its way before the Federal Court of Appeal with the hearing held on Tuesday.

As discussed in the podcast, this case could potentially go up the Supreme Court of Canada and the outcome has huge implications on the ability of businesses to patent “business methods” in Canada. If Amazon ultimately wins, Canada’s patent litigation “industry” will very likely increase exponentially, fuelled by sometimes frivolous patents, not unlike our American brethren.

The pocast features an interview with Jeremy Morris, post-doctoral communications student at the University of Ottawa, discussing Amazon’s 13-year patent battle to own “one-click purchasing”.