1-Click allows an e-commerce web site to store payment and
delivery details so that when a customer comes back to the site, he
or she need only click the mouse once to purchase again.
Amazon’s award of the patent for 1-Click technology by the US
Patent Office sparked fierce criticism from many who said that the
technology was so obvious and essential to e-commerce that Amazon
should not have been given a monopoly right. However, the patent
was upheld in a successful infringement action by Amazon against a
competitor, Barnes & Noble, which operated an express checkout
system. Barnes & Noble was forced to remove the technology from
its site.
Such patents are not presently available in Europe and Amazon’s
patent cannot be enforced in a European court. However, it might be
possible for Amazon to bring an action against a European
e-commerce site in the US courts if the 1-Click technology were
copied.
