"Amazon.com have suffered another setback in their struggle with
the European Patent Office to get a European patent granted for their 'one-click' internet shopping invention (some history and commentary on the subject here and here). Right: One click and they're yours
The original US application was granted as US5960411 back in September 1999, but Amazon have failed as yet to get anything similar granted at the EPO...
One of the EPO's arguments against the application was that it was an "abuse of process" under Article 125 EPC. This did not, however, get very far in the proceedings, since the EPO did not follow the argument through with any enthusiasm, and merely stated that is was a "general principle that abuse of proceedings are not to be accepted", referring to the Spanish civil code, without coming to any conclusion.
As expected, Amazon lost anyway on more conventional grounds, the examining division deciding that they couldn't see any features in the various alternative requests submitted that provided a technical solution to a technical problem, the standard EPO test for assessing inventive step."
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