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Cingular Patents the Emoticon?
massysett writes "Mobile phone carrier Cingular Wireless may have managed to get a patent on the emoticon. The patent describes a system for selecting a displayable icon to indicate the mood or emotion of the user. It also covers text-based emoticons, 'so presumably sending :) via an SMS - if selected via a dedicated or softkey, would be a breach of the patent in future.'" My response? >:/
Yeah, that's der bunny. I posted that years ago and it was rejected as a post. Now /. editors see this as serious, nevermind the seeds were sewn years ago.
A trademark, however is just the permission to grant rather exclusive use of a design. Patenting a system for manipulating punctuation into moods is, well, about as dumb as moodrings.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar