Amazon patents 'customer review incentives'

badge

can i have a register badge, please?

Badges for writing in...

I still have a Blue Peter badge from the sixties... prior art, I feel sure!

Paris, because she gives incentives...

"an (arguably) obvious idea"

There is absolutely nothing merely "arguably" obvious about the idea, it is just completely and totally obvious -- like pretty much everything else that the stupid US patent office accepts without using the slightest intelligence.

As an idea, there is a very obvious precedent that should make it invalid. Its almost exactly the same idea used for rewarding pupils in almost every UK primary school for at the very least the last 50 years.

Gold stars all round?

Is it just me or is this simply a new twist on getting a red star if your child makes it through the night without wetting the bed? Perhaps if you review five items without pissing your pants you get a gold star?

prior art

Re "an (arguably) obvious idea" - you're forgetting that prior art only exists in the USA - the US patent office doesn't count anything invented outside the US.

Now if we could only get the reverse to apply, ie that US patents could safely be ignored if you are not based in the US, then we could let them patent themselves into oblivion and let them go the same way as their bankers.

How is this original art?

Ciao have been doing this for years....

Formula*

What is it then?

Or have they sneakily managed to copyright it, so that we can never know?

And where's my frickin' badge? or other trivial reward? Every other forum I am involved with gives me a nice 'label' depending on how many posts I make (errr... isn't that the same as described here?)