[monochromatic]

No, that's just the abstract. Claim 1, for example, reads as follows:

    1. A computer-implemented method for providing recurring delivery of
    products, the method comprising performing instructions under the control of
    a computer system for:

    receiving at the computer system a designation of a delivery slot and
    a recurring delivery list comprising one or more list items, each of
    the one or more list items identifying a product, a quantity to deliver,
    and a frequency of delivery;

    periodically generating, by the computer system, an order having a date
    and time for delivery based on a next occurrence of the delivery slot, the
    order being generated in advance of the date and time for delivery such that
    the order has a period of time of pendency prior to the delivery;

    creating, by the computer system, one or more order items for the order
    based on a last delivery date and the frequency of delivery of each
    list item in the recurring delivery list;

    receiving at the computer system a change made to a first list item of the
    recurring delivery list during the period of time of pendency of the order;

    in response to receiving the change, determining, by the computer system,
    whether the order includes an order item corresponding to the first list item;

    in response to determining that the order includes an order item corresponding
    to the first list item, modifying, by the computer system, the order
    item corresponding to the first list item based on the change made to the
    first list item of the recurring delivery list; and

    providing, by the computer system, the order to an order fulfillment system
    capable of causing the one or more order items to be delivered
    substantially on the date and time for delivery.

Now, I consider myself a creative person. But I would have a hell of a time trying to read that claim on a fucking milkman.

Learn to read patents, people.

edit: Formatting is really hard apparently.

[arbuge]

It looks like a longish and important claim, but it still seems to me to describe trivial stuff that shouldn't be patentable to begin with. It's just a sequence which is pretty obvious to any clear-minded person once the business requirement is stated. It's one wildly broken patent system that grants patents on this kind of stuff.

[hermannj314]

it still seems to me to describe trivial stuff

It is patent number 8,370,271. With numbers that large, it probably has to allow trivial stuff.

I'm just glad that on November 2nd, 2029, society will be able to use a computer system to manage a list of items to be delivered. We have only to thank the brilliant minds at Amazon and the framers of our Constitution, otherwise such an important contribution to science and the useful arts may have been lost for generations.

[smsm42]

That is provided patent terms won't be extended - to promote even more Useful Arts. Because, you know, there's never enough Useful Arts, and if patents help promoting them - why not extend them for longer terms? Look what is happening to copyrights - once Public Domain advancement line hits Mickey Mouse, it stops dead. Why patents shouldn't work this way too? After all, people seem to be fine living with this broken system and writing this kind of patents and pay millions to lawyers to sue each other over such un-trivial questions as who invented linked lists and who invented delivery schedules.

[glesica]

Sounds pretty obvious to me. I get my pet supplies delivered in exactly this manner by Petflow. I have to assume that their ordering system is implemented using a computer...

[newishuser]

Dude... everything in that claim is what a milkman literally does. Literally! Especially if that milkman uses computers.

[vacri]

Monthly standing orders in computer systems go back at least to the early 90s.

How does this patent get granted in light of prior art and obviousness?

[j-g-faustus]

It still doesn't sound very impressive if you translate it to plain English:

    A computer-implemented method for providing recurring delivery of products, 
    the method comprising performing instructions under the control of a computer
    system for:

Create a list on a computer.

    receiving at the computer system a designation of a delivery slot and
    a recurring delivery list comprising one or more list items, each of 
    the one or more list items identifying a product, a 
    quantity to deliver, and a frequency of delivery;

Listing where, what and how often to deliver.

    periodically generating, by the computer system, an order having
    a date and time for delivery based on a next occurrence of the 
    delivery slot, the order being generated in advance of the date 
    and time for delivery such that the order has a period of time of
    pendency prior to the delivery;

Each day, create a list of the deliveries to be made today

    creating, by the computer system, one or more order items for the order 
    based on a last delivery date and the frequency of delivery of each 
    list item in the recurring delivery list;

For each delivery, list which items to deliver.

    receiving at the computer system a change made to a first list item 
    of the recurring delivery list during the period of time of pendency 
    of the order;

If the customer updates their order, change the delivery.

    in response to receiving the change, determining, by the computer system,
    whether the order includes an order item corresponding to the first 
    list item;

Compare the customer update to the delivery stored in the system.

    in response to determining that the order includes an order item 
    corresponding to the first list item, modifying, by the computer 
    system, the order item corresponding to the first list item based
    on the change made to the first list item of the recurring 
    delivery list; and

Change the deliverly list in the system to reflect the customer update.

    providing, by the computer system, the order to an order fulfillment
    system capable of causing the one or more order items to be delivered 
    substantially on the date and time for delivery.

Give the list of "today's deliveries" to someone who can actually make the delivery.

I still fail to see how this differs dramatically from pretty much every delivery service ever. The delivery guys may not create these lists themselves, but their dispatchers do.

The only thing that differs from say UPS is the 'recurring order' part - say "send me three lettuce every Friday". But grocery deliveries have worked like this for quite a while.

[notintokyo]

Also, wouldn't all those hundreds of "box of the month"-style subscription sites where you can pick a product to send and get it periodically be prior art?

[j-g-faustus]

I believe patents work by making the description impenetrable enough to make the examiner's eyes glaze over.

So they approve the patent in self-defense, and don't notice that it's just a list of trivialities.

[monochromatic]

Do you believe this based on anything in particular?

[j-g-faustus]

It's the only explanation I can find for the fact that patents like this are approved :)

(My alternative hypothesis revolves around evil conspiracies to extend property rights into the realm of generic ideas, with the aim to create a modern equivalent to the medieval landed gentry who can get rich entirely by rent-seeking[1]. All in all, I prefer the "examiners don't understand what they approve" explanation :)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

[AlexHamilton]

I've just read all the claims and everything looks trivial once you realise that this is the basic specification for a repeating delivery system. Can you point to a single aspect of any of the claims that would reasonably be described as novel?

[drcube]

The OP.

[monochromatic]

Yeah, but we already discussed how the OP doesn't know what he's talking about.

[cabalamat]

I don't know whether the examiner's eyes glaze over, but mine certainly do.

[ZeroGravitas]

Reminds me of one of the first computer systems ever used in business, back in the early 1950s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LEO_(computer)

"One of its early tasks was the elaboration of daily orders which were phoned in every afternoon by the shops and used to calculate the overnight production requirements, assembly instructions, delivery schedules, invoices, costings, and management reports"