It keeps raining patents on Amazon's side. The etailer recently received approval on its patent application for drone-delivery. Amazon is still in the process of developing the drone. Therefore, it is at all questionable whether it will ever meet the features in the patent application.
Amazon filed the patent application back in September 2014 and got the green light for it this month. The patent applies to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Delivery System, which is capable of collecting goods from a central location and then delivering them to the delivery address. All drones are connected to each other and to the central system. The route from point A to point B can therefore be changed at any time. The recipient of the order can track the location of the drone via his smartphone.
Read also: Amazon tests delivery drone in Canada
Drone features
Amazon tells the following about the drone in the patent application:
- the device brings orders to the customer's location, not just an address. The online shopper can share their location via a smartphone and the drone then flies there;
- the drone is set to avoid people and animals;
- the drone uses sensors such as cameras and infrared lights to find a suitable landing spot.
Preventing competition
The drone that Amazon has in mind seems a bit ambitious, as the technology is not yet able to meet the above-mentioned points. A patent application may therefore seem a bit premature. With it, the e-tailer probably wants to prevent competitors like Google and Alibaba from getting ahead of Amazon in the development and implementation of delivery drones.
Notable patent applications
This does not comprise Amazon's first notable patent application. As recently as March, the etailer applied for a patent for 3D printing on board its own vans. The year before , the retailer applied for - and received - a patent for photographing products against a white background. This method involves creating a snow-white background without digital tools. Despite the patent obtained, this is not an Amazon invention at all, but a commonly used technique among photographers.
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