You're not supposed to be able to patent anything that's obvious. That's a gross oversimplification of complex US patent law, but basically we've always wondered how Amazon got away with patenting a "one-click" shopping button. Sure, nobody else can use the exact same code you did to create a one-click checkout button. But seriously, did the US Patent Office think that the idea to click a "buy now" button was original?

While we just scratched our head and laughed, blogger Peter Calveley went and did something about it. He filed a re-examination request last year. And now that the patent office has taken another look at the one-click patent they've rejected a large number of claims made by Amazon. In other words, while Amazon has a chance to respond, there's a good chance this patent will be revoked.

[via Boing Boing]