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? >:/

Comments

Patent review

[CastrTroy]

They really need to beef up their standards for patent review. Stuff like this should never even get through. People shouldn't have to spend money battling these patents in court. I think cingular should be fined for even submitting a patent which is quite obviously not novel, and just an attempt to patent something that's already used everywhere in order to squeeze money out of others

Re:Patent review

[MightyMartian]

What they need to do is to a) fine the living shit out of a company that tries to pull one of these patents (I figure 50% of their gross earnings over the last five years is a good start) and then b) forbid them, any subsidiary and any company that shares any member of the board from filing any patent for ten years. If they attempted to take so much as one person to court over licensing, that person should immediately receive fifty thousand times the licensing fee that was demanded of them.

Perhaps when a few pension funds and other shareholders lose their shirts over patent scams, they'll make damn good and sure that nothing like this happens again.

This is simply...

[cnelzie]

...another reason that the Patent system needs to be revised and or rebuilt.

    Activating an emoticon from tapping one key is NO different then activating something via a single Macro key, which has been used in applications and games for ages.

    Writing a series of symbols out to be displayed as an emoticon is also soemthing that has been performed for ages.

    Seriously, when will this patent frenzy of stupidity end?

What idiot approves these headlines?

[unterderbrucke]

The article, even the summary, clearly indicates all they are patenting is the process of using a smiley on the phone/sending it. They are NOT patenting the smiley, that's just an inflammatory headline used to create negative response.

Re:What idiot approves these headlines?

[Anonymous Coward]

The article, even the summary, clearly indicates all they are patenting is the process of using a smiley on the phone/sending it

Oh, OK. When you put it like that, it sounds like a legitimate use of the patent system. Novel, non-trivial, non-obvious, and all that.

Re:What idiot approves these headlines?

[Billosaur]

The article, even the summary, clearly indicates all they are patenting is the process of using a smiley on the phone/sending it. They are NOT patenting the smiley, that's just an inflammatory headline used to create negative response.

And yet that doesn't make it any less ridiculous. Look, the original emoticons were around from the beginning of USENET and have been co-opted in all sorts of garish ways. They have become ubiquitous and you can't patent something that is such. This just points out how stupid the patent system has become. Isn't it possible people were texting smileys to each other before Cingular even existed?

Re:What idiot approves these headlines?

[HalAtWork]

Oh, that makes it better. Because when you put it that way, it's really non-obvious and I'm sure nobody ever thought of doing it before.