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Cingular Files Emoticon Patent

The wireless company has filed a patent application for emoticons -- setting off a wave of dissatisfaction in online communities.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

By Brad King

Cingular Wireless has certainly made no friends today, as news of its emoticon patent application began circulating on the Internet.

The application, which is rather lengthy, describes a static set-up that would allow users with any device (television, computer, mobile device, etc.) to choose from a dedicated window of emoticons, without typing in the ASCII symbols that generate visual emoticons.

From the Cingular application:

The method and system described herein allow a user of a mobile station or other device to easily select a displayable icon, such as an emoticon, that indicates the mood or emotion of the user or conveys other information independent of text. In some embodiments, the selected displayable icon is inserted into a text message or screen, such as an instant message, chat screen, or user text field.

Microsoft faced an equally vicious onslaught when it filed a similar application. The main objection, then as it likely will be now, is that since emoticons represent speech online, no company should be able to patent that language.

(Thank you, friends of Fark.com, for the heads-up.)

Comments

	Yeah, right. Guest (david) on 01/27/2006 at 12:00 AM
Posts: 1	I am quite certain that a few hundred million mobile users around the world are more than willing to breach Cingular's patent (should it be granted). Perhaps someone can now file a patent on the squatting motion associated with use of the lavatory? I guess one can patent anything these days. Just to demonstrate my contempt for Cingular and USPTO: :-( :-O :^\| So there. Rate this comment: (Reply)

	medium vs message Guest (justin) on 01/27/2006 at 12:00 AM
Posts: 1	It's not a patent on the emoticons themselves, but on the method which is used to insert them into the text field. There are patents on keyboards, but nobody assumes that the patent extends to encompass the entire english language - which it doesn't. It's just a way to get that language on the screen. This is also not a patent on ascii emoticons, so guys like this =D in no way infringe on that. It's about icons. That said, it won't work because everyone and their mother has been doing this for over a decade - including microsoft whom, i'm sure, is not eager to start paying royalties for features which things like Messenger have been using for years. Even free, open source projects like phpBB have been using this "smilie icon without typing :)" technology for a long time. In short - they have nothing. Rate this comment: (Reply)

	More than just a phone key Guest (Ghost) on 01/27/2006 at 12:00 AM
Posts: 1	If you read the patent, it also claims on the "transmission" of such icons by digital, electronic or other media. This could certainly be argued that even a keyboard that produces an icon instead of an ascii char violates the patent. Besides, how can someone patent common knowledge? Rate this comment: (Reply)

	Simple Workaround Guest (Dan) on 01/27/2006 at 12:00 AM
Posts: 1	Hey, this one is easy. Forget about idiotic smilies and heir variants. Just don't use them. Or, if you want to send Cingular a "patented" message, don't buy any phone with that feature. Rate this comment: (Reply)

	Prior art Guest (Aidan) on 01/27/2006 at 12:00 AM
Posts: 1	Surely there is too much prior-art for this to be accepted. The Pogo (a phone/web-tablet from Pogo Technology in 2001) had emoticons on its keyboard for typing emails, texts (SMS) and web forms. It also had the much used "WWW." and ".com" buttons. Rate this comment: (Reply)

	more prior art Guest (hubert) on 01/28/2006 at 12:00 AM
Posts: 1	dedicated window of emoticons? sounds like a Cingular did finally get a Treo 600 in his hands. Rate this comment: (Reply)