Amazon, Apple patent used digital goods tech

Used copies of digital goods could soon get a market on Apple and Amazon, suggest patents filed by the companies.

While many have looked to the rise of digital sales as the death-knell of the used games market, the demise of physical media may not be enough to finish off pre-owned sales.

The patents, found by Mashable, both describe systems that would allow customers a way of selling or trading digital goods.

The biggest difference is that Apple’s system gives developers and publishers a cut of the profit.

"A portion of the proceeds of the "resale" may be paid to the creator or publisher of the digital content item and/or the entity that originally sold the digital content item to the original owner," reads the Apple patent.

This may be a preemptive move on the part of both companies to comply with a European law that demands that goods sold digitally be able to be resold by the purchaser.

The US has a Supreme Court decision that could be applied to the same effect, which stipulates that publishers lose control of an item after its first sale.