Nice try, Amazon: 'One-click' payment too obvious to patent

[J65nko]

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07...ous_to_patent/

A payment system devised by online retail giant Amazon is too obvious to patent, the European Patent Office (EPO) has ruled.

Amazon had hoped to patent the way its customers pay for products through the click of a single webpage button. The company was previously granted patent rights to the payment system in the US.

An appeals board at the EPO ruled that the "one-click" method was too obvious as it relied on existing inventions, called "prior art" in patent law. Inventions must be new, take an inventive step that is not obvious and be useful to industry to qualify for patent protection.

[Carpetsmoker]

Isn't it obvious that it's obvious? *sigh*