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Microsoft patents emoticons, copyrights ROTFL
Okay, so I'm just kidding about that second part. But the first statement is legit. According to a filing with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Microsoft has been granted a patent for "methods and devices for creating and transferring custom emoticons to allow a user to adopt an arbitrary image as an emoticon, which can then be represented by a character sequence in real-time communication." What this sounds like is a patent for the common practice of allowing users to type an emoticon key sequence — like :) — into an IM client and have it automatically replaced by a graphic. No word on whether Microsoft plans to go after anyone for this, but to play it safe, you may want to keep your smileys as text — or just stop using them altogether; the whole idea is kind of tired anyhow, and seeing it patented by Microsoft sort of takes all the fun out of it. :(
[Via The Raw Feed]
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsDavid ChartierJul 25th 2005 10:23AM
Sorry if there's any big M$ zealots here, but.... this is just plain pathetic. Purely, fundamentally, ridiculously and sorrow-inducingly pathetic.
JonathanJul 25th 2005 1:22PM
I personally like these =)
AdoraJul 25th 2005 12:33PM
Not quite.
The patent is for sending CUSTOM emoticons, ie. sending whatever custom graphic you have assigned in a second p2p-style transmission, which is stored in the receiver's temporary internet files. Not just assigning :) to a picture.
:: Lisa
:: adora [at] techslut [.] net
dj Robo. Scratching the turntable back and forth. He never gets tired. It's pretty groovy.Jul 25th 2005 1:01PM
dj Robo. Scratching the turntable back and forth. He never gets tired. It's pretty groovy.
Marc PertonSep 30th 2005 1:28PM
Even if that's the case, there's plenty of prior art. Right now, I'm using Fire on the Mac, which allows you to create your own "Smiley Themes." This just doesn't seem that unique.
Steve MAxfieldJul 25th 2005 1:55PM
Microsoft keeps getting worse and worse... they started to get worse even faster, after i switched to the mac side, or so it just seems like it. I hate microsoft. I HATE ...
AdoraJul 25th 2005 1:52PM
So if I design and use my own Fire emoticon theme using images of my cat, then send a message containing said emoticons to %internet.stranger, will he see my cat?
:: Lisa
:: adora [at] techslut [.] net