

St Patricks Day 2000 was marked wiith the first Google Doodle

Source: Google After nearly ten years since filing, Google has patented the Google Doodle. The company has now been granted US Patent 7,912,915, "Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site", which describes a system which provides a periodically changing story line or special event company logo. The patent lists Sergey Brin, one of Google's founders, as inventor and it was filed for in April 2001. The technique has become better known as Google Doodles.

The patent itself has only four claims which appear to cover any attempt to attract users to a web page by modifying the company logo for a special event. It also covers linking that logo to a document or search results which explain the special event and adding video or audio to the special logo. Google has been using special versions of its logo since 2000 to mark special events. It is unclear what Google will gain by having possession of the IP rights to being able to change company logos for special events.

(djwm)