Rough Drafts

Some progress: Now two patent officers will review applications for online business method patents, instead of just one. U.S. to revise Net patent process

Odd lots go online: “Exclude autos on one side and fresh vegetables on the other side, and we’ll sell everything in between,” touts company chief executive Ken Frieze. – Online exchange reinvents the closeout sale

Defense industry exchange announced … most mysterious is their choice of Microsoft for the underlying software. Microsoft??? No one building B2B exchanges these days is doing anything with Microsoft, as Computerworld recently reported. – Global trading exchange announced for aerospace and defense in

The New York Times’ outstanding technology columnist Denise Caruso is leaving the paper. Her farewell column voices her reservations about the unbridled greed that seems to have overtaken the technology industry of late: Technology Has Made Some People Money, but Is That All There Is?

E-commerce is getting hot in Hong Kong — and in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, India, and the rest of Asia, where B2C commerce will hit $8.4 billion this year and B2B commerce will hit $30 billion … and the investment capital is flowing. One difference: Asian investors look for profits, and seem to have litt

Newsweek takes a closer look at the spate of recent dot-com flameouts, including Cook Express, Peapod, and Beyond.com: – Newsweek.com: Dot-Coms Over a Barrel

FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith thinks that the majority of consumer dot-coms have vastly underestimated the costs and difficulties of delivering physical goods. If he’s right, the Standard’s Jonathan Weber writes, “the messy realities of the old economy

The Standard’s business-to-business conference attracts lots of B2B market makers, but very few buyers or sellers — those who would actually use the markets. How much of the B2B boom is really just hype? “Among the rosy predictions and case studies lurks a sense of uncertainty. B-to-b is still very

Here’s a worthwhile c!net analysis on how consumer heavyweights Yahoo, AOL, and eBay are getting into B2B — and what it might mean: Net giants target business e-commerce

Everybody’s doing B2B now: aerospace and paper industries get into the act. Four Largest Aerospace, Defense Firms Near Agreement to Form Web Venture (subscription site) Largest U.S. Paper Firms Team Up To Launch Online Marketplace (subscription site) Paper Companies Plan Online Marketplace

Afraid to stand up to the likes of Microsoft and RealNetworks, pussycat privacy-protection organization TRUSTe is trying to show it’s tough by beating up on MotherNature.com: TRUSTe Cracks the Whip

Car buyer beware: It turns out that online sources for car pricing information, including Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds.com, may not have such accurate information after all — in fact, they often report prices hundreds of dollars higher than the SRP. Car shoppers often pay more online