One-Click (1-click) allows customers to make online purchases with a single click. Instead of manually inputting billing and shipping information for a purchase, a user can use one-click buying to use a predefined address and credit card number to purchase one or more items. This ease of use reduces the friction for buying products. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a patent for this technique to Amazon.com in September 1999. Details of the patent:
Patent: US 5960411 (A) - Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network
Date: 1999-09-28
Inventors: HARTMAN PERI, BEZOS JEFFREY P, KAPHAN SHEL, SPIEGEL JOEL
Applicant: Amazon.com
Amazon.com though has lost an appeal to be granted a patent for its "one-click" ordering system, with the European Patent Office (EPO) ruling that the method was too obvious and not inventive. Amazon argued that one-click ordering increases the security of the system since customers do not have to re-enter sensitive data and that it also reduces the number of steps that would normally be involved in completing a purchase. But the EPO rejected those points. According to EPO ruling "In view of the indexing function of cookies, the skilled person would have realized that any sensitive data traditionally requiring a login could be accessed by cookies. The obvious trade-off between the two processes, namely security vs. simplicity, cannot establish an inventive technical contribution."
On October 9, 2007, the USPTO issued an office action in the reexamination which confirmed the patentability of claims 6 to 10 of the patent. The patent examiner, however, rejected claims 1 to 5 and 11 to 26.
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