Twitter Hashtag Inventor Explains Why Patenting It Would Have Been The Wrong Thing To Do

from the if-you-love-something,-set-it-free dept

Wed, Dec 4th 2013 7:46am — Glyn Moody

Hashtags like #techdirt are not only an indispensable part of Twitter, but are also increasingly to be found elsewhere as a handy way of flagging up key topics in a compact and recognizable way. Given the monopoly-mad world we inhabit, it's something of a miracle that they weren't patented. Business Insider points out that Chris Messina, the former Google employee who came up with the idea in the first place, has explained precisely why he didn't try to patent them. The first reason is practical:

1. claiming a government-granted monopoly on the use of hashtags would have likely inhibited their adoption, which was the antithesis of what I was hoping for, which was broad-based adoption and support -- across networks and mediums.

Messina understands that monopolies tend to throttle the spread of ideas, and that's a big problem when you're trying to introduce something completely new. In fact, the idea of hashtags was so novel that Twitter apparently dismissed them at first according to an interview Messina gave to the Wall Street Journal: "[Twitter] told me flat out, 'These things are for nerds. They're never going to catch on' "
Given that resistance, turning them into a monopoly that required licensing would have been the quickest way to ensure that nobody ever used them. But Messina's second reason is a recognition that his new hashtags were a tiny part of the greater Internet ecosystem, and since he had implicitly drawn from that wonderful pool of ideas in creating them, it was only right that he should give back: 2. I had no interest in making money (directly) off hashtags. They are born of the Internet, and should be owned by no one. The value and satisfaction I derive from seeing my funny little hack used as widely as it is today is valuable enough for me to be relieved that I had the foresight not to try to lock down this stupidly simple but effective idea.
Note, too, that Messina did derive some benefits from releasing his idea into the public domain. He has the deep satisfaction of seeing his idea spread far beyond Twitter, and of knowing that he had made that possible thanks to his wisdom and generosity. He can probably also draw some satisfaction from the fact that in setting his idea free in this way, he's in good company.

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Filed Under: chris messina, hashtags, patents

31 Comments

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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:11am

Another example of innovation being freed
I know not directly related to this article but please support the patent troll legislation.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/you-have-48-hours

And Kudos to Chris Messina for being so forward thinking!!
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Brazenly Anonymous, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:15am

Unpatentable
Seriously, the idea of an escape character to provide special meaning to a following character or string has tons of prior art as does sorting things based on specially designated keywords. Combining the two ideas is what we call obvious.
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- Skeptical Cynic (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:28am
  
  Re: Unpatentable
  Agreed, but obvious is not implemented.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 7:04pm
    
    Re: Re: Unpatentable
    Obvious means it's not patentable. And yes the # sign has been used as a hash tag many times in many places before twitter ever came along. They made it popular but did not invent it.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 5 Dec 2013 @ 1:39am
    
    Re: Re: Unpatentable
    Ever heard of IRC?
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:29am
  
  Re: Unpatentable
  The hash has also been used for this purpose in C/C++ as in:
  #include .....
  #if ....
  etc.
  
  This could well be where he got his inspiration.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 9:17am
    
    Re: Re: Unpatentable
    I thought a '#' means a start of a comment...
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    - John Fenderson (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 9:30am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Unpatentable
      Not in C/C++, but yes in some other languages.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 9:35am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Unpatentable
      It does in Python.
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:36am
  
  Re: Unpatentable
  Not to mention I don't think something that's basically "Let people save their own searches/queries through entering custom defined key words" should be patentable.
  
  That would be like saying copy and paste should be patentable. Hashtags are basically a quick copy and paste of a filter/query through a large pile of data.
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:59am
  
  Re: Unpatentable
  sorta of like 'click the button' to buy something... so obvious it could never be patented... oh wait damn it already is.
  
  I wonder how many other one click buttons have been patented...
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- John Fenderson (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 9:31am
  
  Re: Unpatentable
  Have you not been paying attention to the state of software patents? There is apparently nothing that is unpatentable.
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- BernardoVerda (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:48pm
  
  Re: Unpatentable
  Looking over some cases currently in litigation, that hardly appears to be a significant obstacle.
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Prenda, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:35am

WooT!
Gotta run, on my way to the patent office.
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out_of_the_blue, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:37am

#belowtrivial
This is what passes for a guru at Business Insider and Techdirt. Note subtle plug for Google, too.

SO, who came up with the idea of one pixel images to facilitate tracking everyone whether they want to be or not? Probably a Google idea too.
Just because a lot of people have gotten a lot of easy money off teh internets doesn't make it a plus overall: at the very least, the Internet enables spying on scale and in detail as never before.

04:37:34[f-370-7] [ This suppresses the kids from fraud of using my screen name. ]
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- Ninja (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:40am
  
  Re: #belowtrivial
  #schizophrenia #googleobssession #boringtroll #braincramps
  
  Also, don't speak in hashtag strings ppl.
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- Baron von Robber, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:57am
  
  Re: #belowtrivial
  ootb! Welcome back! We missed our Village Idiot. So does the MPAA/RIAA pay for your vactions as well as your posts here?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 6:34pm
    
    Re: Re: #belowtrivial
    Of course. What do you think that $80 million the MPAA is not going to get from Hotfile is supposed to pay for?
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Ninja (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:38am

Hmmm... #epicwin ?
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:58am

The first humans want to patent sex and breathing.
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- mdpopescu (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 9:36am
  
  Re:
  The apes have already copyrighted them.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 9:48am

Shouldn't be patentable anyway. The HTML anchor pretty much nails prior art, and even that isn't original.
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Lirodon, 4 Dec 2013 @ 9:52am

And...
IRC channels have used similar syntax for naming (i.e. #techdirt) pretty much since the beginning.
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- Nick (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 12:02pm
  
  Re: And...
  Yes, I remember Chris has admitted elsewhere got the idea from IRC. Back then ('07 I think) the idea was you could create an adhoc facsimile of and IRC room by tweeting and searching (on a 3rd party site, I can't remember the name now) for hashtags.
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  - Chris Messina (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 4:42pm
    
    IRC was a heavy influence
    As I wrote in my original proposal, IRC was definitely an inspiration, as was Jaiku:
    
    http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/08/25/groups-for-twitter-or-a-proposal-for-twitter-tag-channel s/
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Krish (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 11:07am

Reminds me of the Identity chapter of the Hyperbole and a Half book: "isn't it awesome that I didn't patent this idea that was obvious and used for ages even though the patent wouldn't have held up and it would make me a laughingstock?"

Good job!
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- kog999, 4 Dec 2013 @ 1:07pm
  
  Re:
  rounder corners were apparently patent worth. this seems at least as patent worthy as that.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2013 @ 7:43pm

lol...I can understand why the creator of the hashtag did not try to patent it. IT IS NOT PATENTABLE.
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vic kley, 5 Dec 2013 @ 10:28pm

Sweet of Chris to make # freely available within Twitter
A nice touch Chris. Also the idea is no longer available for debate as to its obviousness.

I don't need to point out that had you applied for a patent you would likely still be trying to obtain one and during this period your idea would be protected but you would not have a patent to license. So the free use of the # among the twitted would be unimpeded.

Now my question have you ever actually successfully patented something?
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Michael Kay, 6 Dec 2013 @ 12:28am

Unenforceable
If the US patent office did grant a patent (and I'm sure they would, if you paid them), who exactly would be violating it? Anyone who uses that particular key on their keyboard? Anyone whose search engine indexes words beginning with # in exactly the same way that it indexes everything else?

Thanks for the article. It shows the depths of absurdity to which patents have descended that this could even be seriously contemplated and discussed.
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Jourdan Rystrom, 19 Dec 2013 @ 5:50am

#HashtagsAnonymous
Ha...we thought Jack Dorsey (the creator of Twitter) invented hashtags. Whoops! Learned something new :)

Does anyone need to go to this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-ll78Muto

#HashtagsAnonymous
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