Doo-dle-lally?
Google has been granted a patent for Google Doodles after a decade of lobbying to protect its playful advertising feature.
The Doodles are defined as customised versions of the Google logo that land on the company's home search page to celebrate holidays, events and products.
The patent application said examples include "a company logo [that] is modified with a voter's button for Election Day" or "modified with an animated character for the Olympics," Business Insider reported.
Commentators have remarked that the Doodle patent is proof that the US patent system has gone crazy. Apple is currently trying to patent the term App Store, while rivals are busy trying to stop it.
Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin, is believed to have invented the Doodle concept and is credited as such on the patent, which is reportedly titled: "System and Method For Enticing Users To A Web Site."
It also apparently covers a method for regularly switching a home page as if it is following a story line.
Business Insider has said that the methods do not seem to be anything out of the ordinary compared to Google's rivals' techniques and that it is "just creating a new image, storing it on a server, and uploading it to the Web server".
The US patent system was originally intended to encourage innovation by protecting small firms and investors from having their ideas poached or modified by big players.
However, in recent years the big companies themselves have been using patents to stop competitors from using their discoveries to build their own products; arguably going against the original intention and seeking to stop innovation.
Google successfully launched a mysterious animated Doodle last September which set tongues wagging about what it could possibly be promoting. Just days later Google Instant was unveiled, showing how the firm has used the Doodle to its own marketing advantages.
