Posted on 04/04/2006 10:59:40 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
I patented the letter "e." You farking, sneaky bastiches better give me my props.
>>
I WONDER WHO HAD THE FIRST DRIVE THRU?
<<
A few California places did that back in the fifties, but I believe Wendy's was the first national chain to make it a standard practice. I could be wrong, but that sticks in my memory.
Here in Wichita we have a dine in or carry out place called nuway they touted that they were the first in the 40's to employ young ladies on roller skates to deliver bags of burgers to cars. This place is so small and their business is so large they had to do some thing. People could call in or walk in and order and then have the stuff brought to their cars. They could of qualified for several business method patents.
Don't laugh, either. If it's a Dim judge you better believe that this will be a factor in final judgement. After all, what would law have to do with it.
That being said, if the patent covers the website and method of movie selection, I can see that being upheld.
As far as a business model, outside of the particulars of the Netflix website, I can't see how you can protect or justify protection of a business model. Maybe someone can explain (or I can finish reading the thread - lol!) I mean, you can't complain because someone else competes with you in the same market, that stinks of a monopoly if you've outlawed the competition.
Netflix and their "get it to you fast" lie. I would send mine off to Netflix and it regularly took 9 days to get one back, and the both the site and I were in GA.
I got tired of it and cancelled, the next WEEK I find they are doing this on purpose, because we watched and returned them promptly.
grrrrrrr
This is the only way Netflix could beat serious competition.
I'm rooting for Blockbuster in this one.
Netflix lies and throttles and has the worst attitude toward customers.
Anyone seriously entering this market should find a ready-made group of disgruntled Netflix customers.
I seem to remember Amazon.com having a patent for "one button shopping".
I dropped my Netflix subscription last week due to the throttling issue. The return center is about seventy-five miles from my home, and Netflix usually waited about a week to remove movies from my "shipped" list after I returned. I guess its a lot easier to provide unlimited rentals when you're intentionally slowing down the service.
Kind of like McDonalds trying to patent a double cheeseburger.
Huh - I never knew you could patent a business process. Live and learn.
Only occasionally do I have that problem with Netflix. About once per month, I guess. I'm in GA also. Usually, the movie is logged in the next day, and next one is shipped.
I usually turn my movies around within a day or so. Maybe it is because I'm just a one movie at a time customer.
How did you find that they were doing this on purpose?
Now I have a reason to never use Netflix. Hope they go under.
Thank you. I had no idea this was going on. I did notice for a while, when I was a heavy user, that the movies seemed to be delayed, but I didn't give it any thought.
Does "silence as consent" fly very far in these trials? That seems to be a frightening legal principle. How much silence equals consent? Doesn't that boil down to a principle of "whomever has enough money to defent their patents may be protected by them, the rest can kiss off"?
you said "Otherwise you have a monopoly situation,,".
A monopoly is the whole point of a patent!!
Lurking'
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.