In a move to take over the world, or at least the online world, AOL has patented the instant message. The Reg notes that AOL has kept mum on the subject, and hasn't yet decided if it wants to collect royalties from MSN, Yahoo, and other messenger systems.

This is almost as silly as when BT patented the hyperlink and then tried to extract cash from every major ISP on the planet.

Hopefully my patents for the 'phone call', and 'yelling up the stairs', two other popular forms of communication, will come through soon.