What The 1-click Patent Expiration Means for Brands
The famous Amazon patent expiration could signal a shift in things to come.
Amazon’s 1-Click patent is expiring and it only means one thing: 📈
Lets close our eyes and imagine never typing your credit card number ever again… Like the soft sound of nature, birds chirping 🐦, rivers flowing…
Our smart phones would become useful again.
The 1-click functionality could have made our lives easier
Until now our friends at Amazon had it locked down behind a patent.
Patent US5960411A — Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network
Filed on 1997–09–12, Granted on 1999–09–28 to Inventors: Peri Hartman Jeffrey P. Bezos Shel Kaphan Joel Spiegel
Unfortunately we will never know the full extent Amazon has gone to use this patent to prevent others from innovating, but there is a huge list of eCommerce service providers that will be able to immediately create a better experience for their users and build a 1-click experience.

eCommerce growth has been insurmountable in the last 20 years. Above is Amazon($AMZN) vs. Walmart($WMT). It doesn’t need to be said but Amazon is the obvious winner. In the last 10 years the stock market has rewarded Jeff Bezos incredibly! The stock market has mostly rewarded Jeff’s vision.
Our vision is to be Earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
Think about all the commerce that potentially happens on these combined sites:
- AceHardware.com
- Apple.com
- BarnesAndNoble.com
- BathAndBodyWorks.com
- BestBuy.com
- CVS.com
- Cars.com
- Costco.com
- eBay.com
- GameStop.com
- Gap.com
- HM.com
- HobbyLobby.com
- HomeDepot.com
- HomeGoods.com
- IKEA.com
- JCPenney.com
- JoAnn.com
- Kohls.com
- Lowes.com
- Macys.com
- Menards.com
- Michaels.com
- Newegg.com
- Nike.com
- Nordstrom.com
- OfficeMax.com
- Overstock.com
- Pier1.com
- QVC.com
- REI.com
- SallyBeauty.com
- Sears.com
- Sephora.com
- Shop.com
- Staples.com
- Store.SteamPowered.com
- Target.com
- ToysRUs.com
- Ulta.com
- VerizonWireless.com
- VictoriasSecret.com
- WalMart.com
- Walgreens.com
- Williams-Sonoma.com
- Zappos.com
And another list of eCommerce service providers that support a huge amount of online business:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Big Cartel
- Squarespace
- Magento
- WooCommerce
- Gumroad
- Storenvy
- SendOwl
- Cratejoy
- Celery
- 3dcart
Brands and Merchants, Pay Attention and Prepare Your 1-Click Checkout.
If your brand retail offer has any amount of repeat business, ask your product team about 1-click checkout. I have been working with Amazon long enough to know that it shouldn’t be the only place that brands are selling through. This is another shift that we’ll see in the next few years. Established brands will fade as they ignore DNVBs and pick/ship logistics. New brands will thrive as they fully understand the marketplace.

