Amazon to Loose "One-Click"?

From my Aussie stringer, the Sydney Morning Herald has an article this morning on a New Zealander called Peter Calveley. Peter has been engaged in what is becoming a sport of sorts for dedicated people, crank-heads and other patent crusaders who seek to challenge existing patents for various technical solutions and products. In this case, he has waged a long battle over Amazon.com's famous 1-Click patent, a process that enables online shoppers to buy goods with the single click of a mouse button. From the news report:

In response to Calveley's request to re-examine the intellectual property, the US Patents and Trademarks Office (USPTO) has just handed down a decision
rejecting all but five of Amazon's 26 claims to the patent. The Patent Office agreed with Calveley's claim that processes similar to the 1-Click solution had been documented before the Amazon patent was lodged in 1997. Eight of Amazon's 26 intellectual property claims were dismissed because of a Newsweek magazine article entitled The End of Money?. It was published in 1995 - two years before the 1-Click patent was lodged. The article described a process where someone could click a button to pay for "an annotated bibliography of every article ever written about Sandra Bullock" and download the file.

Naturally, Amazon.com are not giving up so easily and can opt to appeal or take the case to the civil courts. As for now, the decision has been posted on the USPTO website but don't go adding 'one click' to your transaction module just yet.