Peerflix Acquires e-Commerce Merchandise Swapping Patent
By Alexander Grundner |
December 18th, 2006
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Get a load of this…. Online DVD trading service, Peerflix, has purchased the rights to patent No. 6,847,938 originally owned by Donna Moore of Danbury, Connecticut that “may provide Peerflix with a legal lever to ward off direct competition in DVD trading, as well as stake a claim on other Web sites that broker the trading or sale of everything from event tickets to video games,” reports the Associated Press. Ouch. I thought software patents were bad, but this seems just as harmful or worse. When Peerflix’s chief exectuive, Billy McNair, was asked if they were planning on enforcing the patent, he responded: “There would be no reason to own the patent unless we intended to flex our muscles around it.”
U.S. Patent 6,847,938 (Moore) – Jan. 25, 2005
Method of exchanging goods over the internet
Abstract
A method and system is taught for coordinating the exchange of goods between parties over a communications network such as the internet. Users of the system can interact with a central computer to input data regarding items that they offer for exchange, as well as search criteria describing items that they would like to receive in exchange. A processor in the central computer searches records stored in a database to find and sort those records that satisfy the user’s search criteria. A second test is then be performed to determine whether the information that the user input describing the item offered for exchange satisfies search criteria within the record. As a result, a match may be generated between two users who have input complementary criteria. The invention can also accommodate more complex exchanges between three or more parties.
Photo credit: John Thorn via Flickr
Related Coverage:
PC Magazine – Can You Resell a ‘Used’ MP3 from iTunes? (Includes details on Peerflix’s new cash reward model)
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Poor Greg – 7 days 4 hours ago