...that is now officially patented!

From now on, if you launch a search engine, it had better not use a homepage design that contains the bolded elements below:

It might have taken Google 5 years to get the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to issue the patent, but issued it is. Of course, even Google doesnt sit on a winning homepage design. In the five years its taken the USPTO to grant the trademark, the search giant has tweaked the design some.

Now all we need is some brave soul to test how far Google will go to enforce the trademark. Its going to be hard for Google to enforce a patented search interface, when even its current homepage looks different.

Any legal eagles wish to way in on this?

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