Free software activist Richard Stallman has threatened to launch a second boycott of online retailer, Amazon if the firm attempts to profit from the patent for cookies that it was awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last Tuesday.
Covering "web site customisation using cookies, and more particularly, to a method of extending the functionality of cookies to increase web site performance", Amazon's patent application argues that the patented technology in question differs from ordinary cookies, in that it is designed to address the problem of performance degradation during multiple accesses to the database on which customer information is stored.
Following a lawsuit launched by Amazon against Barnes and Noble in 2000 over the latter's use of Amazon's patented 'One Click' technology, Mr Stallman, founder of the GNU software project, explained that:
"We singled out Amazon for a boycott, among the thousands of companies that have obtained software patents, because Amazon is among the few that have gone so far as to actually sue someone. That makes them an egregious offender."
"Most software-patent holders say they have software patents 'for defensive purposes', to press for cross-licensing in case they are threatened with patent lawsuits. Since this is a real strategy for self-defence, many of these patent holders could mean what they say. But this excuse is not available for Amazon, because they fired the first shot."
In an e-mail sent to technology news service, ZDNet last week, Mr Stallman announced that:
"If Amazon begins attacking anyone over this, we will relaunch the boycott of Amazon."
Although the 2000 boycott did little to dent the online retailer's profit margins, it did spark intense scrutiny of the granting of patents within the software industry, and attracted a degree of adverse publicity to the firm's legal battle with Barnes and Noble.
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