Cingular Manages to Patent Emoticons on Cell Phones

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15792.php' target='_blank'>http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15792.php</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The USA based mobile operator, Cingular Wireless has managed to get a patent on the concept of using emoticon on mobile phones. While the aim of the patent is to enable the displaying of MSN style graphics on handsets, they also managed to patent the delivery of text based emoticon - so presumably sending :) via an SMS - if selected via a dedicated or softkey, would be a breach of the patent in future."</i><br /><br />What the? Oh man, someone has to take the patent office aside and give them a good talking to. :twak:

[Janak Parekh]

In a (small) defense of the USPTO, this is a patent application, Mike.

--janak

[Kris Kumar]

Crazy!

I did a search on the USPTO.gov site and found that there are couple of other emoticons+mobile device related patent "applications." In fact one has been filed by Samsung, which pretty much means that the symbols screen with emoticons that you get when you press the * key, will be a violation on all non-Samsung devices. :?

Any here is the Cingular's patent "application":
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&amp;r=3&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;co1=AND&amp;d=PG01&amp;s1=cingular&amp;OS=cingular&amp;RS=cingular

It seems like they are talking about have single dedicated button to bring up the emoticons list/display.

[Kris Kumar]

Correction, I had earlier done a search for "emoticons" and once I changed to "emoticon" (no 's'), I got tons of patent application. Yesh! People are really crazy about emoticons and filing patents.

[Mike Temporale]

In a (small) defense of the USPTO, this is a patent application, Mike.

--janak

Ah... Yes. I didn't notice that before. I guess I was too disgusted by the time I got to the end of the article that I must have over looked that part. Sorry about that.

Still doesn't make this any less ridiculous, unfortunately. :?

[Rocco Augusto]

"The USA based mobile operator, Cingular Wireless has managed to get a patent on the concept of using emoticon on mobile phones. While the aim of the patent is to enable the displaying of MSN style graphics on handsets, they also managed to patent the delivery of text based emoticon - so presumably sending :) via an SMS - if selected via a dedicated or softkey, would be a breach of the patent in future."

What the? Oh man, someone has to take the patent office aside and give them a good talking to. :twak:

are you kidding? the patent office has been my main source me amusement for the past month due to their ridiculous patent mishaps :lol:

[Janak Parekh]

Correction, I had earlier done a search for "emoticons" and once I changed to "emoticon" (no 's'), I got tons of patent application. Yesh! People are really crazy about emoticons and filing patents.
It's more accurate to say people are really crazy about filing patents over anything, and the USPTO is crazy about granting them (well, not crazy per see, but ill-equipped to deal with the flow of applications).

For example, a search for patents on the keyword toilet paper (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&amp;r=0&amp;f=S&amp;l=50&amp;TERM1=toilet+paper&amp;FIELD1=&amp;co1=AND&amp;TERM2=&amp;FIELD2=&amp;d=ptxt) yielded 1488 issued results. 8O

--janak

[Jerry Raia]

For example, a search for patents on the keyword toilet paper (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&amp;r=0&amp;f=S&amp;l=50&amp;TERM1=toilet+paper&amp;FIELD1=&amp;co1=AND&amp;TERM2=&amp;FIELD2=&amp;d=ptxt) yielded 1488 issued results. 8O

I bet one of those was for the Mpx220. :lol:

Couldn't resist.

[Kris Kumar]

It's more accurate to say people are really crazy about filing patents over anything, and the USPTO is crazy about granting them (well, not crazy per see, but ill-equipped to deal with the flow of applications).

I am glad that my company has a formal board for reviewing the applications and only after the internal board has approved it, does it go to the next level, the USPTO office. There are times when it is tough for us to get a valid application approved. :-(

[Janak Parekh]

I am glad that my company has a formal board for reviewing the applications and only after the internal board has approved it, does it go to the next level, the USPTO office. There are times when it is tough for us to get a valid application approved. :-(
Well, the unethical opportunist would say that you're probably missing out on some patent possibilities.

I have a friend who was once a patent examiner. It is not an easy job -- they have quotas and it is not easy to know everything in the field one examines. The whole process is broken, and that's the biggest problem, not the examiners per se.

--janak

[Kris Kumar]

Well, the unethical opportunist would say that you're probably missing out on some patent possibilities.

The thing that makes me mad is that, the patent attorney and the (internal) inspection boards, like to see something that is tangible. Since I work for Software Development arm of the company, our patents don't have an existence beyond the bits and bytes world. They cannot see it, touch it, smell it, it becomes difficult to prove it. And then Cingular goes ahead and tries to patent a dedicated button for emoticons. :evil:

I am just glad that my employer is in the top 25 list of patent receipients, wonder what would happen if they do not have a strict internal inspection. :?

[Janak Parekh]

The thing that makes me mad is that, the patent attorney and the (internal) inspection boards, like to see something that is tangible.
That's because, until recently, software wasn't patentable -- only tangible stuff was. It's a huge debate amongst technologists as to whether software processes should be patentable.

--janak

[ricksfiona]

Yes, there are people out there who are opportunist wanting to make an easy buck. However, people wanting to patent emoticons will get shot down sure enough. It would be like someone trying to patent the word 'the'.... It's just dumb however that our government has to waste it's resources on frivolous applications.