Microsoft has applied for a patent on "custom emoticons", as described in this ZDNet article ("Microsoft frowned at for smiley patent").
The basic idea of that patent application seems to be saving bandwidth by reusing images already sent once. This used to be called a "cache", and it is not really a new idea just because you associate some keystrokes with the "costum emoticon".
Of course opponents of software patents are pleased. While the patent office should reply with a big costum emoticon for "Rolling on the Floor Laughing" to this application, they probably won't.
So we get another software patent that looks like someone made a joke on Slashdot, as remarked by Open Source Consortium executive director Mark Taylor, according to the ZDNet article.
That won't help in keeping up support for software patents in America.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at July 23, 2005 11:31 AM