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In-Line Images in Messages – Facebook Patent Application

51 points by loser777 12y ago

orliesaurus 12y ago
Is this for real? How can people patent stuff like that!
lucio 12y ago
the troll is a freudian slip? or a hidden request for help?
- lfuller 12y ago
  I found it apt given the type of patent.
aristus 12y ago
Author here, or as they say, “Principal Inventor”. This started out as an Easter Egg John and I put into Facebook Chat in 2012. It was very simple: if you typed the ID of a Facebook object in double brackets, like [[zuck]], it would display Zuck's profile photo instead. Months later Reddit found the egg, and did all sorts of fun things with it like construct composite troll faces from strategically-placed profile photos. It even made the tech news rounds on what had to have been a very slow news day. http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/24/a-christmas-miracle-facebook-chat-kind-of-supports-extended-rage-faces/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/24/a-christmas-miracle-faceboo... http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/np3qi/you_can_make_rage_faces_on_facebook_im_no_shit_im/ http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/np3qi/you_can_make_rage... The lawyers said they wanted to see me. Not to pat me down before being escorted off the premises. No. They wanted to get the details in order to file for a patent! I could not refuse. My employment contract said I was to make reasonable effort to assist in the creation of patent applications that resulted from my work. I've done a lot of stuff I'm proud of. But it seemed that my landmark contribution to human knowledge was going to be what TechCrunch dubbed "extended rageface support". So when the lawyers asked me to provide illustrations of “example uses", I did the only reasonable thing. It was the first and probably last time that a troll face was relevant in a patent.
- oh_sigh 12y ago
  Can you tell me how this is significantly different from what instant messaging systems have been doing for decades, whether its through image embedding, or smiley faces that turn into images? Is it because you put the word "social graph" in there?
  - aristus 12y ago
    It was not my decision to pursue this patent application, so you're asking the wrong person.
    - rootlocus 12y ago
      You were the one to "invent" the "technology" and you don't even know if it's different than the smileys used in every forum around the internet? Was there someone else who formulated your application? Have you even read it?
  - dguaraglia 12y ago
    I'd imagine this is Facebook's lawyers trying to guarantee they don't leave a door open for patent trolls if they ever decide to use this as a feature. I very much doubt they'd enforce it at all.
- mitchty 12y ago
  I have to admit, seeing a troll face in patent images makes me laugh. At least you made the best of it.
- scoot 12y ago
  I won't pretend to understand how patents work, or comment on the general absurdity of the claim overall, but it did strike me as peculiar that Facebook would attempt to claim ownership of the invention of (this embodiment of) a 'composite image' that can (with evidence you kindly provided) be attribute to members of reddit. Also, I can only assume Facebook's patent lawyers charge by the word!
  - 12y ago
otterley 12y ago
To be clear, UPSTO hasn't issued a patent from this application yet.
- x1798DE 12y ago
  Yeah, the title of this article should be changed to reflect that this is a patent application, not a patent.
  - dang 12y ago
    Thanks; changed.
- jerf 12y ago
  What, issue a patent in under two years? Puh-leaze! It is impressive to me that the system is simultaneously far too generous in handing out patents, yet is also so miserably slow that if you actually needed the protection afforded by a patent, the infringing business would have time to be born, infringe like mad, profit, and die again before it gets issued. I wonder when we hit the crossover line where by the time the patent is issued, it has already expired?
joeframbach 12y ago
My web browser has been doing this for ages. When I type in a resource identifier, surrounded by some markup like <img, it fetches the resource and renders it! Amazing!
- rtpg 12y ago
  This is in the context of messages between two users, so probably forum [img] tags win this one in terms of prior art.
Ancient 12y ago
“Imma let you finish, but ...” this should not be patented, thus the application should die with fire! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for creativity and patent holding for unique innovations, but this is ridiculous. How about I go ahead and patent my own "innovative" technique: `:) @2x` A high-resolution inline-image metacommunicative pictorial for multi-platform & multi-devices. (aka a "smiley" with large anti-alias font)
- orliesaurus 12y ago
  ^ this made me giggle
Apofis 12y ago
Doesn't this already basically happen when text smiley-faces are replaced with image ones?

51 points by loser777 12y ago

orliesaurus 12y ago

Is this for real? How can people patent stuff like that!

lucio 12y ago

the troll is a freudian slip? or a hidden request for help?

lfuller 12y ago
I found it apt given the type of patent.

aristus 12y ago

Author here, or as they say, “Principal Inventor”. This started out as an Easter Egg John and I put into Facebook Chat in 2012. It was very simple: if you typed the ID of a Facebook object in double brackets, like [[zuck]], it would display Zuck's profile photo instead. Months later Reddit found the egg, and did all sorts of fun things with it like construct composite troll faces from strategically-placed profile photos. It even made the tech news rounds on what had to have been a very slow news day. http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/24/a-christmas-miracle-facebook-chat-kind-of-supports-extended-rage-faces/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/24/a-christmas-miracle-faceboo... http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/np3qi/you_can_make_rage_faces_on_facebook_im_no_shit_im/ http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/np3qi/you_can_make_rage... The lawyers said they wanted to see me. Not to pat me down before being escorted off the premises. No. They wanted to get the details in order to file for a patent! I could not refuse. My employment contract said I was to make reasonable effort to assist in the creation of patent applications that resulted from my work. I've done a lot of stuff I'm proud of. But it seemed that my landmark contribution to human knowledge was going to be what TechCrunch dubbed "extended rageface support". So when the lawyers asked me to provide illustrations of “example uses", I did the only reasonable thing. It was the first and probably last time that a troll face was relevant in a patent.

oh_sigh 12y ago
Can you tell me how this is significantly different from what instant messaging systems have been doing for decades, whether its through image embedding, or smiley faces that turn into images? Is it because you put the word "social graph" in there?
- aristus 12y ago
  It was not my decision to pursue this patent application, so you're asking the wrong person.
  - rootlocus 12y ago
    You were the one to "invent" the "technology" and you don't even know if it's different than the smileys used in every forum around the internet? Was there someone else who formulated your application? Have you even read it?
- dguaraglia 12y ago
  I'd imagine this is Facebook's lawyers trying to guarantee they don't leave a door open for patent trolls if they ever decide to use this as a feature. I very much doubt they'd enforce it at all.
mitchty 12y ago
I have to admit, seeing a troll face in patent images makes me laugh. At least you made the best of it.
scoot 12y ago
I won't pretend to understand how patents work, or comment on the general absurdity of the claim overall, but it did strike me as peculiar that Facebook would attempt to claim ownership of the invention of (this embodiment of) a 'composite image' that can (with evidence you kindly provided) be attribute to members of reddit. Also, I can only assume Facebook's patent lawyers charge by the word!
- 12y ago

otterley 12y ago

To be clear, UPSTO hasn't issued a patent from this application yet.

x1798DE 12y ago
Yeah, the title of this article should be changed to reflect that this is a patent application, not a patent.
- dang 12y ago
  Thanks; changed.
jerf 12y ago
What, issue a patent in under two years? Puh-leaze! It is impressive to me that the system is simultaneously far too generous in handing out patents, yet is also so miserably slow that if you actually needed the protection afforded by a patent, the infringing business would have time to be born, infringe like mad, profit, and die again before it gets issued. I wonder when we hit the crossover line where by the time the patent is issued, it has already expired?

joeframbach 12y ago

My web browser has been doing this for ages. When I type in a resource identifier, surrounded by some markup like <img, it fetches the resource and renders it! Amazing!

rtpg 12y ago
This is in the context of messages between two users, so probably forum [img] tags win this one in terms of prior art.

Ancient 12y ago

“Imma let you finish, but ...” this should not be patented, thus the application should die with fire! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for creativity and patent holding for unique innovations, but this is ridiculous. How about I go ahead and patent my own "innovative" technique: `:) @2x` A high-resolution inline-image metacommunicative pictorial for multi-platform & multi-devices. (aka a "smiley" with large anti-alias font)

orliesaurus 12y ago
^ this made me giggle

Apofis 12y ago

Doesn't this already basically happen when text smiley-faces are replaced with image ones?