When I started at Google I joined the team working on Gmail Chat. The whole team — eng, pm, design, marketing — squatted in a conference room. It was a fun environment that often led to vibrant and animated discussions, thrashing out crazy ideas for things we should implement. Some things (like the cowbell +/’) made it in, many others didn’t. One idea that we decided was pretty bad just got granted a patent: musical emoticons.
So, its cool that I got my first patent, even if it is a moderately embarrassing one :)
Congrats on your first patent — and embarrassing is absolute nonsense! This is TOTAL bragging rights. Total. Gmail emoticons should be universal – been saying that since they rolled out. If I were you, I’d create a piece of flair and wear it our every day. :)