A diagram from Microsoft's "emotiflag" patent application

A few years ago, Microsoft made headlines for seeking a patent on the email "emotiflag" -- an emoticon, chosen by the sender, that appears along with the subject line in the recipient's inbox. The application was controversial because the idea was actually introduced years earlier as "Mood Stamps" in Ray Ozzie's Lotus Notes.

Ozzie is now Microsoft's chief software architect, but the company wasn't openly adopting his invention in seeking the patent. It named someone else as inventor and asserted that there was previously "no means by which to indicate an emotion associated with an email message." Many stories at the time explained that wasn't true.

Put a big next to this one, because it turns out the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office didn't get the message. Microsoft was granted the patent this week. It appears that the Patent Examiner didn't see the stories pointing out the prior art in Lotus Notes.

Patent watcher "theodp," who has been following this one from the beginning, points out that "the Patent Examiner did justify his decision with 11 pages of documentation on his search strategy, which included patent databases and Google Scholar searches for 'emoticon custom email' and 'emoticon email whole message,' but none for the actual name of the patent ('Email emotiflags') using average-joe Google, even though the USPTO site suggests a plain-old Google search 'should be considered' " in assessing an application."

Theodp adds in an email message, "Nice to see that no one from self-described patent reform advocate Microsoft felt compelled to step up to the plate and volunteer Ozzie's prior art info to the USPTO, either."