IBM Sues Amazon for Patent Infringement

International Business Machines Corp. has filed two separate lawsuits against Amazon, alleging that the Seattle-based company improperly derived its e-commerce functions from technologies patented by IBM as far back as the 1980's.

Amazon, founded in 1995, has achieved success for a number of years by offering an extensive online catalog of books, music, movies and other products to consumers as part of its virtual marketplace. So, one has to wonder why IBM waited so long to file the lawsuit. Could more of this type of legal posturing be on the horizon in the e-commerce landscape? Earlier this month, Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons went public with plans to pursue copyright infringement complaints against YouTube, but only after the company's much publicized acquisition by Google. Perhaps IBM, like Time Warner, conveniently overlooked the patent infringement issues until Amazon began achieving financial success. After all, it doesn't pay to sue someone until they have something worth taking. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark murdok: Joe is a staff writer for latest ebusiness news.