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Cingular Patents the Emoticon?

Posted by Zonk on from the no-words dept.

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? >:/

1 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Patent review by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.