Amazon has patented the milkman, etc.
plus.google.com
plus.google.com
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.
Learn to read patents, people.
edit: Formatting is really hard apparently.
It is patent number 8,370,271. With numbers that large, it probably has to allow trivial stuff.
I'm just glad that on November 2nd, 2029, society will be able to use a computer system to manage a list of items to be delivered. We have only to thank the brilliant minds at Amazon and the framers of our Constitution, otherwise such an important contribution to science and the useful arts may have been lost for generations.
How does this patent get granted in light of prior art and obviousness?
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.
I still fail to see how this differs dramatically from pretty much every delivery service ever. The delivery guys may not create these lists themselves, but their dispatchers do.
The only thing that differs from say UPS is the 'recurring order' part - say "send me three lettuce every Friday". But grocery deliveries have worked like this for quite a while.
So they approve the patent in self-defense, and don't notice that it's just a list of trivialities.
(My alternative hypothesis revolves around evil conspiracies to extend property rights into the realm of generic ideas, with the aim to create a modern equivalent to the medieval landed gentry who can get rich entirely by rent-seeking[1]. All in all, I prefer the "examiners don't understand what they approve" explanation :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer)
"One of its early tasks was the elaboration of daily orders which were phoned in every afternoon by the shops and used to calculate the overnight production requirements, assembly instructions, delivery schedules, invoices, costings, and management reports"
"The grant of this patent to Amazon renders me speechless. http://t.co/bMh7qwkh "Recurring Delivery of Products". prior art = milkman"
Usually he's rather supportive of most of the tech patents HN likes to deem "obvious", so if even he finds this astonishing, perhaps there really is something wrong here :)
And sources: http://www.dailytech.com/Top+AntiAndroid+Blogger+Florian+Mue... http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57440902-94/microsoft-legal...
As fair as I am concerned, anything he says he is saying because he is being paid, wants to be paid to continue saying it, or wants to be paid to stop saying it. Well, that or because he is bored and hasn't harassed PJ recently; his obsession with Pamela Jones is rather unnerving.
http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=Florian+dis...
I'd love to live on your planet and see what color the sky is...
I wonder what you think it is, since he has literally no legal background at all. He also finally admitted he was engaged by oracle to do roughly the same.
I'll concede though, he all but admitted that he is a paid shill.
As someone who follows both it actually started with PJ and for a long while Florian never responded. And even the responses were far more professional than PJ's usually hyperbolic posts.
And being paid by a company does not make you a shill. Bias comes in many, many forms and the only way to cut through it is to provide facts.
So maybe you are right. Maybe this isn't always about money to him, and is some other sort of obsession.
The fact that Florian likes to brag about his dubious credentials while PJ lets her analysis stand on its own merit really adds to it. Florian believes his identity to be vital to the worth of what he says, PJ thinks the opposite of herself.
Go read some of Florian's rants about PJ, and tell me with a straight face that you don't find it creepy and are surprised that she would choose to keep identity out of it.
I'm well aware that I'm as guilty of it as anyone.
E.g., one casualty of the dot-com bubble was Streamline, an online grocery delivery company. They called their version of the invention Don't Run Out. Fast Company raved about it in this article dated July 31, 1998:
What happens when customers depend on you - and you deliver?
They decide to depend on you even more. One of Streamline's most
popular services is called Don't Run Out. Families identify
their must-have items - milk, toilet paper, diapers, pet food -
and authorize the company to replenish their stock of each item
automatically. Today almost every Streamline household uses
Don't Run Out. The average household has standing orders for
more than 10 items. "It's extraordinary," says [Gina] Wilcox. "The
consumer makes a purchase decision once, and we fill the order
throughout the year. It redefines brand loyalty. It redefines
marketing."
Prepending existing ideas with, "A computer-implemented method" does not make them patent-worthy and everyone in the entire world knows it.
> Judge: Why don't we actually look at a claim? Why don't we start with claim 26 of the 375' patent. It begins, "a data processing system to enable the exchange of obligations between parties, the systems comprising: a communications controller, a first-party device coupled to said communications controller, a data storage unit having information stored, a computer coupled to said data storage unit, said communications controller that is configured to do the following"
> Judge: That doesn't just sound like somebody saying a "method" with maybe a computer, I mean there are four separate physical tangible components of a system articulated.
> Lawyer: Your Honor, you're right. There's a computer, a hard drive, and a telephone.
So better make a web page with Amazon's hall of fame of inventors and add them to this list.
If that's all there is to it, then why would you defend such an outrageous patent? If that's not all there is to it, what else is there?
What I have a problem with (and what happens so depressingly often) is people saying "OMG they got a patent for {what the abstract says}! I can think of so much prior art, the examiner must be brain dead!"
Now, various examiners do work all along the quality spectrum. But it is almost never that simple, and this ignorant, arrogant shit has got to go.
1. A computer-implemented method(...)"
Mmm, I'm to young to have seen an actual milkman, but television never depicted them as "computer-implemented"
The patent they've been granted is extremely broad especially when you consider that a majority of delivery companies actually do what the patent says.
For instance, you can request a delivery slot and the majority of delivery systems identify the product, the quantity to deliver and the frequency of delivery. The patent they have been granted covers all aspects of that.
[1] http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...
I used to see Michal the Milkman trucks driving around near down town Palo Alto a few blocks away from where Steve Jobs used to live!
I really do like their 'Subscribe & Save' service though [2] (which is what the patent describes).
http://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-Whole-Milk-Gallon-128/dp/B00032...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09milk.html?_r=...
Nice for some folks living in Seattle, otherwise not very relevant.
Which is really too bad, cause Amazon Fresh is pretty awesome.
As an author on 25+ Amazon patents (not the one referenced by the post) I will tell you three things:
1/ The US patent system is broken. Everyone knows this. 2/ Every company has to protect itself by filing patents. This is just a reality of the system that we have. 3/ A company that turns its focus away from its customers and instead focuses on other companies is either a parasite (hello patent trolls!) or has lost its way.
My 0.02.