On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 12:19:18 -0800, stoney <stoney@the.net> wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 15:42:36 GMT, satyr <RsEaMtOyVrE@infidels.org> wrote
in alt.atheism

Here it is:

http://tinyurl.com/cuktw

This is only a patent application, not a granted patent. The claim
doesn't actually cover using emoticons, but rather having dedicated
keys to insert them into your text message. Kind of an automated
emoticon from people too lazy to press two or three buttons. Of
course, it is also wasting valuable real estate on your little
wireless device.

Thank you.

IMO, if the patent system could shut down all those damn Crackberries,
that would be all it needs to justify its existence.

What's wrong with the Blackberry? [puzzled]

The guy I work with is totally tuned in with his and his wife. I have
seen him take and return three calls within a minute. You cannot have
a face-to-face talk for three minutes without the thing going off.

I guess I just want to be that available. I get 75 minutes per month
with my cell phone and in four years I have never used them all.

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 12:19:18 -0800, stoney <stoney@the.net> wrote:

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 15:42:36 GMT, satyr <RsEaMtOyVrE@infidels.org> wrote
in alt.atheism

IMO, if the patent system could shut down all those damn Crackberries,
that would be all it needs to justify its existence.

What's wrong with the Blackberry? [puzzled]

The guy I work with is totally tuned in with his and his wife. I have
seen him take and return three calls within a minute. You cannot have
a face-to-face talk for three minutes without the thing going off.

I guess I just want to be that available. I get 75 minutes per month
with my cell phone and in four years I have never used them all.

Enkidu wrote:

erikc <firewevr@airmail.net> wrote in
news:6smnt1tvcsvb4afg392klq0m0kb0kfurl4@4ax.com:

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 22:16:14 -0800, stoney <stoney@the.net> wrote:

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2575

Cingular Patents The Emoticon : (
January 26, 2006

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the emoticon. When
harmless they are cute, when used at the end of a rude comment like
“just kidding!” they seem hostile. But for the most part, they are
a part of Internet culture ever since email began zinging around.
Today, if you can believe it, I found out that Cingular is going to
patent the emoticon. As far-fetched as that sound, in this era of
Amazon owning “the one-click” and RIM battling for the ability to
send Blackberry email, patent law is scary and not even close to
overheating. The patent number is US2006015812 if you want to look it
up.

We say: :( Why stop there? Why not patent BTW and ROTFL and RTFM?

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.
Source: CellularNews

/end

I'd like to see them enforce that one : )

Who tried to enforce a patent on the .gif image format?

Unisys.

http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw

That didn't work either.

It certainly did, although it was not hard to find or write code to
produce gif images, but all the big players (Adobe, etc.) did pay them
royalties.