The internet giant claims that barnesandnoble.com illegally copied its 1-Click technology.

Amazon.com filed the suit late on Thursday in Seattle. It alleges patent infringement and seeks an "immediate and permanent" halt to Barnesandnoble.com's use of the shopping feature.

It also asks for an unspecified amount of damages.

With the 1-Click technology, customers only have to click their mouse once to buy a selected item and they don't have to re-enter the same information each time they buy something.

"We spent thousands of hours to develop our 1-Click process, and the reason we have a patent system in this country is to encourage people to take these kinds of risks and make these kinds of investments for customers," Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO said.

Amazon.com started doing business in 1995 and the 1-Click feature has been available to their customers from September 1997.

As well as its US site, Amazon.com, the company operates a UK site, amazon.co.uk, and a German site, amazon.co.de.