"Cingular applies to patent smileys"

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John Navas - 27 Jan 2006 07:41 GMT

Dumbest patent of the month dept:
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/27/cingular_emoticon_patent/>

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John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

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pltrgyst - 27 Jan 2006 15:36 GMT

>Dumbest patent of the month dept:
><http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/27/cingular_emoticon_patent/>

No it's not -- it's the dumbest feature writer of the month, who doesn't know
that what matters in a patent is the claims, not the use of a scary buzzword,
and who has no clue what he's talking about in general.

The subject patent application does not seek to patent emoticons, but a
particular keypad and display method for selecting and displaying them on a cell
phone. Whether allowed or denied, it's a legitimate application.

-- Larry

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John Navas - 27 Jan 2006 17:58 GMT

>>Dumbest patent of the month dept:
>><http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/27/cingular_emoticon_patent/>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>particular keypad and display method for selecting and displaying them on a cell
>phone. Whether allowed or denied, it's a legitimate application.

I respectfully disagree. The claims are absolutely absurd.

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SMS - 28 Jan 2006 01:06 GMT

> The subject patent application does not seek to patent emoticons, but a
> particular keypad and display method for selecting and displaying them on a cell
> phone. Whether allowed or denied, it's a legitimate application.

Stupid title for the article, since it doesn't match the patent
application at all.

However it would seem that the patent is too specific, why didn't it
simply specify a method of inserting graphical icons, rather than
specifying emoticons?

It's sometimes actually quite amazing what gets patented. One former
colleague had to be coerced into applying for a patent on adding a few
bytes of FIFO to a UART. He got $100. The patent made many millions of
dollars in licensing fees for the company, and kept some lower cost
competing products out of countries that respect patents.

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