We cannot end the quarter and year without highlighting a example of an invention which has such a long history of pent-up demand: converting unwanted gifts BEFORE getting them.
With a recently issued patent (7,831,439) inventors Bryar and Bezos (Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.) purport to improve the gift giving/receiving experience through online shopping services by converting unwanted gifts into gift cards or chosen purchases, before receiving and, therefore, without the need to unpack, repack, and return such “unwanted gifts.” In addition, some of the “impersonal” quality of giving “gift cards or cash” could be relieved by actually choosing to gift anything that appeals to the giver, knowing the recipient would always get a preferred gift. From a Welfare Economics perspective, its a net Pareto improvement!
The first independent claim in the patent reads as follows: 1. A computer-implemented data processing system comprising: a memory that stores gift conversion rules; and a processor in communication with the memory that: generates a user interface configured to permit a gift sender to order a product as a gift for a gift recipient via a network service; and executes gift conversion logic that permits the gift recipient to specify the gift conversion rules, wherein the gift conversion rules specified by the gift recipient define a manner in which gifts purchased for the gift recipient may be automatically converted, wherein at least one gift conversion rule identifies the gift sender who has ordered a product as a gift for the gift recipient, such that whether the gift is converted is determined based at least in part on the identity of the gift sender specified in the at least one gift conversion rule.
As in most types of innovation, Amazon could monetize this patent by increasing its market share as the exclusive provider of what could be characterized as “preemptively convertible gifts” or by licensing the patent across the online retail world.
The disclosures and claims in the patent come complete with the discussion of the ancillary concepts of “gift conversion logic” and “gift conversion rules,” as well as their configuration by the user through a dedicated GUI. However, further analysis is needed to fully explore if the technology known as “Re-Gifting” should have been cited as prior art.
More seriously, the disclosure of a relatively detailed “conversion rules engine” should be pointed out as an example of software-based business method patents that are evidently patentable subject matter, as IPwatchdog Gene Quinn observed in his blog.