microsoft patents emoticons

is your smiley is in danger?

http://tinyurl.com/aqkjh

absurd, along with so many other software patents.

as long as M$ keeps doing this, I won't be shedding too may tears when my users aren't fully licensed.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

What a bunch of horse puckey. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sick2.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

If I read this right this is M$ sinking to new lows.

Even if you make your own custom emoticon, they are patenting how you transmit it. Sucketh.

Microsoft patenting something that uses a portable network graphics file? .PNG is open-source, and thus evil per Redmond...

Q: How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a light bulb?


A: None, they just declare dark a new standard!

Not all that bad for us flashaholics I guess...

Hmm, I guess we will send emoticons in .jpg format soon /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sick2.gif

Ok, I'm going to patent air before they do... This is SO.... AUGHHHH! I'm just disgusted!

May be we gonna recast out vote soon.

"An apple a day, keep the doctor away!"


^_^ <- Sorry M$ that was a Keyboard Icon.

I may need to go back an reread it, since I just skimmed it; but I wasn't seeing a patent for emoticons. What it looked like was a patent for a means of making graphical emoticons standard in emails or whatever, that would automatically appear whenever someone used the text emoticons. If you typed a colon, followed by a right parenthesis, then it would automatically become something like a /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif . It already does it for things like forum software, but this would extend to text email and other text files. The idea isn't new particularly, but the reading of a couple of ascii values being interpreted as such by your OS isn't yet being done.

WOW! Why didn't we do that! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

d'mo - are you going to patent air itself or the process of inhalation, exhalation, or flatulation? This could get complicated?! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Ewwwww.....
Lol!

I think I'll patent pubes. That way, anybody that's got 'em's gonna have to license the little suckers from me.

I hope this post isn't out of line, it just struck me as being a funny thing to say.

Ok...I'm guilty as the rest for taking this off topic...maybe we can all control ourselves now and "get back on the road"? Thanks!

O.T. Sigman, where's tomas when we need him? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

Larry

As the "Comic Book Guy" on The Simpsons said, "There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling right now". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

Sorry, Craig, I apologise!

Larry

As I read the patent, it appears to be the technique for transcribing a graphic to text and back to a graphic again. It won't hold up, since I remember in the old days (1980s') there were BBS programs that did basically the same thing. Called them avatars. Prior art, you know.

I'm sure that MS is wanting to allow their cell phones and IM products to send custom emoticons that are usable only when communicating with other MS products.

Daniel

I must learn how to patent patents.