Hello emoticon-users!
You may soon have to pay for the use to the lovely company in Seattle ;)

In this patent application they are trying to get the following as their "invention":

Abstract

Methods and devices for creating and transferring custom emoticons allow a user to adopt an arbitrary image as an emoticon, which can then be represented by a character sequence in real-time communication. In one implementation, custom emoticons can be included in a message and transmitted to a receiver in the message. In another implementation, character sequences representing the custom emoticons can be transmitted in the message instead of the custom emoticons in order to preserve performance of text messaging. At the receiving end, the character sequences are replaced by their corresponding custom emoticons, which can be retrieved locally if they have been previously received, or can be retrieved from the sender in a separate communication from the text message if they have not been previously received.

And as software patents are legal in the US, and the US-patent office seems to patent every triviality, it could be a problem for the US.

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Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

Hello emoticon-users!
You may soon have to pay for the use to the lovely company in Seattle ;)

They tried to trademark the name "Bob", too, but didn't get very far with THAT little gem...

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Stewie: So, is there any tread left on the tires? Or at this point would it be like throwing a hot dog down a hallway?

Fox Sunday (US) at 9PM ET/PT

Hello emoticon-users!
You may soon have to pay for the use to the lovely company in Seattle ;)

In this patent application they are trying to get the following as their "invention":

Abstract

Methods and devices for creating and transferring custom emoticons allow a user to adopt an arbitrary image as an emoticon, which can then be represented by a character sequence in real-time communication. In one implementation, custom emoticons can be included in a message and transmitted to a receiver in the message. In another implementation, character sequences representing the custom emoticons can be transmitted in the message instead of the custom emoticons in order to preserve performance of text messaging. At the receiving end, the character sequences are replaced by their corresponding custom emoticons, which can be retrieved locally if they have been previously received, or can be retrieved from the sender in a separate communication from the text message if they have not been previously received.

And as software patents are legal in the US, and the US-patent office seems to patent every triviality, it could be a problem for the US.

I thought everyone knew that Micro$&^t doesn't invent ANYTHING. They steal it from the "real" inventors....

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

It doesn't look like they're saying they invented them. It looks like they've got a new 'service' in the works. They keep saying "custom" emoticons, so it sounds like they're working on an expanded emoticon set that corresponds to certain text strings. I'm guessing it's something they're looking into adding this functionality to the OS.

It doesn't look like they're saying they invented them. It looks like they've got a new 'service' in the works. They keep saying "custom" emoticons, so it sounds like they're working on an expanded emoticon set that corresponds to certain text strings. I'm guessing it's something they're looking into adding this functionality to the OS.

Oh, that's all I need.... A bunch of smilies all over XP, yuck.... >:-)]




Here's my 2¢ donation, to Micro$oft, for the use of MY smilie!

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Emoticons are heavily used in their latest version of MSN Messenger.

[font='courier,courier new']Too late.[/font]

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I thought everyone knew that Micro$&^t doesn't invent ANYTHING. They steal it from the "real" inventors....

If you can find it, watch the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley"
Then, of course there's the athena code that became part of NT.