Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. {{nasdaq|AMZN}} is an American electronic commerce company based in Seattle, Washington. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet. Amazon also owns Alexa Internet, a9.com, and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Patent controversies

The company has been controversial for its use of patents as an alleged hindrance to competitors. The "one click patent" is perhaps the best-known example of this. Amazon's use of the one-click patent against competitor Barnes and Noble's website led the Free Software Foundation to announce a boycott on Amazon in December 1999 http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1999-12-22-001-05-NW-LF. The boycott was discontinued in September 2002 http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/amazon.html.

Related Topics:
Patent - One click patent - Barnes and Noble - Free Software Foundation - Boycott - 1999 - 2002

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On February 25, 2003, the company was granted a patent titled "Method and system for conducting a discussion relating to an item on Internet discussion boards."

Related Topics:
February 25 - 2003 - Internet discussion board

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