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It de-incentivises innovation that isn't worthy of a patent. Patents (ostensibly, in their original intent) exist in part to allow innovators to know that a competitor can't just go off and clone what they did, but has to license from them or counter-innovate a novel alternative.

In practice this won't stop all possible competitors, specifically those that flaunt patent law, but I don't think Amazon is one of those. Amazon could likely buy a license to the innovation from the patent holder for less than dealing with the courts would cost, in which case the patent system would be working as intended.




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