Canadian Patent Office Rules On Requirements For An "Invention" For A Patent

The Canadian Patent Appeal Board recently rejected Amazon.com Inc.'s patent application relating to its "one-click" online order-processing method. The decision provides guidance as to how the Patent Office views the scope of the term "invention" as provided in Section 2 of the Patent Act.

To provide some history: Amazon filed a Canadian patent application in 1998 for its single-action order-processing method. The application described a method and system that allows customers to complete an order over the Internet with only one click of their mouse. A unique identifier is stored on the customer's computer, which is associated with customer-specific account information already stored on the vendor's servers from a previous visit. When the customer clicks on the button to purchase an item, the vendor's servers receive the request, retrieve the customer's account information using the identifier, and combine the retrieved information to generate the order. This way,