Cingular Gets Patent on Cell Phone Emoticons
“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.”
(by Cellular News)
Wow… just wow. Really awkward move by the patent office people. Better stop using emoticons in your messages right now or maybe otherwise Cingular will sue you in the end 