Has the world gone completely mad!??

If it were not incredible enough that companies like BP and LastMinute.com can register a colour as a Trademark, it now appears that interactivity itself has been patented.

One of our web designers at Riff Raff, @moymadethis pointed me in the direction of this unbelievable article on Ars Technica about US patents company Webvention LLC, who appear to be holding the web to ransom over purportedly illegal use of their patented technology.

Whether or not Webvention LLC have a valid claim of ownership over rollover images with hyperlinks in them remains to be proven, but that hasn’t stopped them offering would-be offenders a one-off licensing fee of only $80,000 to get themselves off the hook.

If it wasn’t the middle of October, I’d swear this was an April fool!