The U.S. Patent Office has previously been seen to be, ahem, patently ridiculous, but here's a step in the right direction. Based on a challenge from a disgruntled Amazon customer and "patent enthusiast," believe it or not, Amazon's historic patent on "1-Click" shopping carts has been largely struck down.

The 1997 "1-Click" patent revolved on 26 claims, 21 of which have now been rejected due to Peter Calveley's demonstrations of "prior art."

The "1-Click" patent has been the subject of numerous landmark battles. After a long court war, Barnes & Noble ultimately settled a patent suit brought against it over the use of 1-Click checkout. As well, Apple currently pays royalties to Amazon for its own version of the 1-Click checkout technology. It's a tiny part of these websites, but the financial stakes add up. In reexamining the patent, Calveley (who raised the $2,520 to file the challenge via grassroots donations on his blog) strikes a blow, however small, for patent reform against obvious technologies and methodologies being protected by the law.

Don't expect immediate change: Amazon can now respond to the ruling, and Amazon also has another patent that is more limited than the one currently at issue. So, there's a long way to go before this patent is thrown out (and that will likely never happen completely), but at least things are headed the right way.