You try to stop someone from using your idea, that
person takes you to court and shows your idea already existed somewhere
else, judge throws our your patent. I"m not seeing the danger here.

There are several dangers, among them the effective awarding of rights
to the one with the biggest pocket. "Patenting everything - let the
courts decide" puts the onus on the general public to risk huge losses
by adopting an method which was inappropriately patented (such as the
method of using only one click to shop). It was dangerous enough so
that Borders and B&N have implemented "two click" methods just to avoid
lawyers.

If B&N won't take on a dumb patent, I doubt that mom and pop stores will
dare. So, Amazon inappropriately gets to use "just one click" to shop,
as if it were not only novel, but a significant feat (though it could be
a significant advantage).

Also, existing patents (defended or not) serve as a benchmark against
which other methods are evaluated for patentability. The ball keeps
rolling, and one day we may find ourselves paying royalties on the idea
of writing a book on a PDA.

Jose
--
He who laughs, lasts.
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