Canadian Patent Appeal Board denies Amazon.com's one-click patent application

Abstract

The Patent Appeal Board recently refused a patent application filed by Amazon.com for placing orders on-line using one click (the ‘one-click patent application’). Customers were identified using cookies that were stored locally on their computers; these identifiers were used to obtain the customer's pre-recorded information from Amazon.com's database. The patent examiner initially rejected the application as being either obvious or directed towards non-statutory subject matter. Although the Board reversed the examiner's findings on obviousness, the application was rejected as being directed towards non-statutory subject matter. Section 2 of the Patent Act defines an ‘invention’ as ‘any new and useful art, process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter’ (or any improvement thereof); the Board considered that the application fell outside this statutory definition.