If Microsoft want to patent the way we are allowed to finish our conversations- why don't we just throw in the towel and give them the list of all our colleagues and let them converse with them on our behalf. I'll hang-up on someone if I feel like it, ignore someone I had a falling out with over the weekend, or chat up my wife on IM as I see fit. This proposed patent is a good reason to hang up our keyboards altogether and actually start talking to people the good-old way again.......errrr most probably by Skype or mobile phone........

What would be nice is if your computer would send an automatic "Goodbye Cruel World" message before downloading MS patches ...

They can build it into their own operating system so it can say things like "I'm very sorry but I seem to have just fucked up your day by crashing. I'm ever so sorry... Bye", and then blue screen on me.

They postponed Vista umpteen times and then released it full of bugs and looking like crap. Now, having nothing better to do they are sodding about trying to patent ideas that are, patently ridiculous.

I thought that was what "Invalid Page Fault" and "your application has encountered a serious error and will be shut down" meant.

If they try to make money from this patent, they'll infringe IBM's patent on making money from patents:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/24/ibm_patents_patents/

It'll really show just how incompetent the US patent system is. As was mentioned, this has clearly been done by IRC for donkeys years and anyone who's ever used it would be able to tell you that. That's a lot of people.

So lets see, how is this goiing to work?

Lets say that you are IM-ing your friend Bob, and when you close your session window it will send a "Buh Bye, buh bye now" message. Then Bob closes his IM window which automatically sends you an IM of "Ta for now"...?

Doesn't that then open up a new IM session window on your desktop? And then you close that window and the cycle repeats?

Can I patent the idea of the intelligent widget that breaks that insane cycle?

or should be, to "anyone skilled in the field". Gaim (and I'm sure other IM clients) has for years given the option of sending a message (or doing most anything said program does, for that matter) whenever a buddy logs in/out/goes away/comes back/etc and this is just a tiny extension of that.

the patent office will just say they should have submitted their own patent first!

Which reminds me, I must submit that patent for ambulatory movement performed by moving one foot in advance of the other foot. Hmm.. I think I will call this "foot-centric ambulatory travel"

M$ sux! Have they no shame?

Customised logout messages have been around since at least the early 80's (was doing it on green screen systems).

When is the invention? Notifications of people going on/offline have been in various chat system since... DOT

"With its new patent application, Ballmer and company hope to eliminate rudeness across the net"

Sorry? Did I miss something? When someone doesn't turn up to a meeting or return your calls, having his/her secretary apologise to you doesn't make them any less rude.

Ditto with this little idea - it just makes it easier for people to forget the niceties that are the lubricant of the social machinery.

I don't get it, are they really that bloated and incompetent that they can piss away money on something like this without anyone with even passing interest in the target market remarking that it's already been done?

I was always fond of the one which says "Gotta go, my parole officer needs to use the computer."

Sympathize with Musharef and Dick from King Henry VI. This smacks of lawyers needing to keep themselves employed with busy work at mother Micro.

And we won't get into the waste of a college education -- never mind oxygen -- represented by the attornies in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for the last 15 years.

NO CARRIER

Share and Enjoy!

Anyone remember IRC scripts from the mid 90's.. oh wait.. they still exist and are in use.. see mIRC for example, or dozens of other IRC clients.

As I recall from an FTP server that I ran MANY years ago, it would greet anonymous users with 'What the fuck do you want?' and it would send them rejoicing on their way when they logged out with 'Good - Fuck Off'

Should have patented it then, it seems.

Nuff sed.

No one can say that Microsoft doesn't innovate after this one.

This will silence the critics.

Hope they get it...

'the facility may select a goodbye message based on other aspects of the conversation, such as time of day, length of conversation, mood indicated by the user, and so forth."

...Cant wait for the first 'Land of the Free' law suit for 200million based on the MS gadget selecting 'I sick of you you boring little f**k, goodbye' based on the mood it had selected. Heh..maybe they will measure how hard you are punching the keys and choose your mood on that.

Oh goodie, this will be fun

Coat, Taxi..

... it's "free rein". You know, like horses have.

You ugnorant got.

I think this is Microsoft way trying to force the patent system change. Why else would they put a patent like that? It is one of those where you really can show how stupid the patent system has gone. I give them the credit making stupid patents, the more, the faster we will get a change where only real inventions can be patented. Now, copyright is different, say "here is your friendly Microsoft system and we hope you have a great day" is different but can't patent that.

Aliasing was the way to go (aliases.ini for those who use mIRC).

Anyway, I'm sure with this move, it won't be long before Microsoft stary to copyright gerunds, articles, preposisitons, and other categories of grammar. Then we'd be liable to pay costs (or be branded pirates) for using a, an, the, on, at, in, or any word ending in "-ing". It really, really wouldn't surprise me.

They are only trying to build up a pile of patents they will use to attack GNU/linux ...

Is it too obvious, and too old hat.

Sorry, but this application is stretching the terminology as well.

Since when did "Ciao, Harry!" constitute art??

Having used the 'MSDN online concierge' recently I reckon it won't be long 'til Microsoft patent the whole of the conversation, seemingly as it is generated by some bot IM client.

They should be able to claim no prior art to the welcome message that castigates you on start up for not shutting windows down properly when what really happend was that the bleeding thing decided to stuff itself up it's own arse.

1) - F*CKIT, internet connection's gone again - BRB

2) - F*CKIT, MSN has logged me out again - BRB

3) - F*CKIT, clicked the wrong "X-it" - BRB

Well if that is really the goal, the means are simple : stop IE from working, stop Outlook from sending mails and pull the plug on MSN and all affiliates.

Oh yeah, one more thing : Ballmer, shut up permanently.

Roll up your sleeves lads, do some good for a change. What we need is a nice, contagious worm that updates the "auto disconnect message" settings on Windows machines to issue "FUCK OFF SHITHEAD" whenever they disconnect from MS tech support.

Should be easy, whatever product this makes it into should have more holes in it than Swiss cheese if previous experience is anything to go by.

"...The patent office will just say they should have submitted their own patent first..."

That's not how patents work. There doesn't have to be a prior *patent* to make an application invalid, it just has to have been shown before in the public domain: "prior art".

There is no such word as "converser" -- does that mean the patent can be ignored?

Thanks to Anonymous but Cowardly Nonetheless for correcting Cade Metz's 'free reign'.

Oh, Cade, while we're on the subject of ignorance, don't forget to post an anti-iPhone rant tomorrow, UK's iPhone Day!

I believe they are also trying to patent the Personal Portable Environmental Modification Device (PPEMD) which is a brilliant concept. If you are walking and the environment turns "user hostile" and start raining, you can open this device, lift it so the "mini climate deflector" is over your head the the rain no longer falls on your head. I can't think why no-one thought of it before. Thank God for Microsoft. Oh, apparently, if you are currently infringing this patent, by using a non-Microsoft versioon of the device, you can get a personal license for just $100, of course this will only license the PPEMD for you and any attempt at covering another, unlicensed person will be an offence, but still, it IS progress.

Would you like help?"

..I'm going home.

"With their new patent application, Ballmer and company hope to eliminate rudeness across the net."

Nice to see these self appointed Web police acting on our behalf. I'll sleep much better knowing the valiant fight to eliminate rudeness across the net is being fought in our name.

If only they would spend as much time fighting kiddie porn eh? Oh wait, probably no money in that...

FWIW: This is probably nothing to do with "Microsoft", more their Legal Dept, which are probably simply attempting to justify their own existance and pay cheques. Nothing new there then...

For those "brb, gotta reboot!" messages. It could even detect if you've installed a few fixes and say "OK, fixes installed. Rebooting. Pray for me!"

From casual observance it would appear that the only place they look for prior art is a bank statement.

From memory (not got it on this PC), Trillian has implemented automatic goodbye messages for many years now.

Although just published is enough to show prior art, the patent office don't look everywhere. They generally only look in the patent applications. If they had time, they'd maybe look at other sources.

There are only two ways to establish prior art:

1) File a patent with an earlier filing date

2) Publish

Publishing means more than telling a friend, it effectively means that you have to present the invention in a reputable journal, or at a public symposium of repute. There has to be no way that the date of publication can be falsified.

This application falls into the class of "ideas so trivial that a reputable journal would laugh if you tried to publish it" - which means that establishing prior art involves scouring journals to see where "automatic goodbyes" are mentioned as an aside.

What's needed is a "Journal of the Bleeding Obvious" with user contributed content. Something like lulu could be used to print it, and copies catalogued in a friendly university library. Imagine the exchanges in court "Your honour, I submit as exhibit 2 the Journal of the Bleeding Obvious dated November 8th 2007".

With their penchant for passing laws named after people maybe our distant cousins on the other sied of the pond could push for a "Sybil's law".

When a SIP (VoIP) seesion ends, it sends a "BYE" command to the device. Does this count?

there is prior art, gaim 1.3 I believe had a plugin to do just that.