Comments on: Cingular Patenting the Emoticon :( http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/01/27/cingular-patenting-the-emoticon/ The voice of the BlackBerry community. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:40:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: BBP http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/01/27/cingular-patenting-the-emoticon/comment-page-1/#comment-17823 BBP Fri, 27 Jan 2006 23:42:37 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/01/27/001307/#comment-17823 Two points: First, Cingular didn’t actually *get* a patent — they *applied* for a patent last March that has just recently published. So they don’t have any rights in this invention yet, and in fact the patent office hasn’t even looked at the invention in any substance at this point. So while Cingular is *asking* for a patent on the idea, they’re a long, long way from actually *getting* something that can be enforced against others.

Secondly, the actual invention claimed by Cingular is quite a bit narrower than the above text would imply. Basically, Cingular has described their invention as a phone with a special “emoticon” button that enters emoticons automatically (that is, it enters “:-)” with a single button press rather than three separate presses). It’s not as novel as the wheel, fire or sliced bread, but it’s not as bad as you might think. It’s also reasonable to expect that this will get even narrower before it actually issues (probably in another year or two).

Love the site, by the way!

]]> By: BBP http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/01/27/cingular-patenting-the-emoticon/comment-page-1/#comment-482158 BBP Fri, 27 Jan 2006 23:42:00 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/01/27/001307/#comment-482158 Two points: First, Cingular didn’t actually *get* a patent — they *applied* for a patent last March that has just recently published. So they don’t have any rights in this invention yet, and in fact the patent office hasn’t even looked at the invention in any substance at this point. So while Cingular is *asking* for a patent on the idea, they’re a long, long way from actually *getting* something that can be enforced against others.

Secondly, the actual invention claimed by Cingular is quite a bit narrower than the above text would imply. Basically, Cingular has described their invention as a phone with a special “emoticon” button that enters emoticons automatically (that is, it enters “:-)” with a single button press rather than three separate presses). It’s not as novel as the wheel, fire or sliced bread, but it’s not as bad as you might think. It’s also reasonable to expect that this will get even narrower before it actually issues (probably in another year or two).

Love the site, by the way!

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