] Where is BountyQuest when you need it? The company,
] founded in 2000 and backed by Amazon CEO
] Jeff Bezos, offered cash rewards to individuals who could
] prove or disprove a company's claim to a patent. Amazon
] itself found its patent on one-click ordering called into
] question on the site. But BountyQuest is apparently no
] more, its Web site shut down, its phones disconnected.
]
] Meanwhile, Amazon.com has filed for a patent involving
] online advertising, stoking the ire of many industry
] watchers. The company wants to stake its claim to a
] method of allocating online ad space via real-time
] auctions. But many are questioning whether this concept
] originated with Amazon, noting that the idea was
] discussed frequently during the dot-com boom.
]
] Is there anything to Amazon's claim, or is this another
] instance of the company patenting the obvious, as it did
] with affiliate programs and one-click ordering?