Apple and other eRetailers hit with business method patent lawsuit... PING!
Patent Troll Lawsuit Ping!
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As near as I can tell from reading the four patents, they refer to the use of electronic "tokens" that customers can buy and then exchange for merchandise from the token seller. I cannot see that maintaining a credit balance at a store and using that balance for future purchases is in anyway related to buying "tokens." Apple, and these other defendants, sells their products in exchange for units of the appropriate currency, not some artificial "tokens." Allowing customers to maintain a credit balance for future use in purchases does not strike me as patentable... my business customers do it all the time.
The only eRetailer that may be infringing these patents (assuming they are valid and not so obvious as to be unpatentable), in my opinion, is Microsoft with their Microsoft Marketplace Points where MS requires customers to buy "points" (think tokens) for cash which can then be exchanged for products or services.