Microsoft patents both one and zero

Posted 15 years ago by Evan Tishuk

In what CEO Bill Gates called "an unfortunate but necessary step to protect our intellectual property from theft and exploitation by competitors," the Microsoft Corporation patented the numbers one and zero Monday.

3 Comments

Jim Ciallella ~ 15 years ago

I propose the use of 8 and sideways 8 as an alternative to binary 1's and 0's. Everyone knows we had trouble with those 1's anyway. Always having the barbed part stick into the wire's sheathing or slowing things down when passing wirelessly through walls. With the 8, you get the rounded corners, which provides superior wired and wireless transportation. With my proposal, we can also enjoy the use of a single digit, so there is only a need to have a patent on the number 8. Ha, beat that Microsoft.

Jim Ciallella ~ 15 years ago

Oh yes, and the patent for the number 8 will be under the name of Greenville, SC based web design firm OrangeCoat . Also, please don't confuse the sideways 8 with the infinity symbol.

Oh damn, someone already owns all the domain names for sideways 8, one of which is a web design firm. Go figure. Maybe I'll just buy ifyaknowwhatimean.com and make the sideways 8 the offical symbol.

Over and out.

Adam Gautsch ~ 15 years ago

This reminds of the story, some thought to be true, that Metallica patented or copyrighted the use of the E followed by the F chord, or some such.

This, of course, was a joke as well.

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