A lot of companies file patents to cover their asses against patent trolls, not to enforce them. I would imagine that this is something similar.
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.