Emoticon patent application :-(
Friday, January 27th, 2006
US mobile phone operator Cingular Wireless has lodged a application to patent emoticons on
According to Cellular News 
:
The USA based mobile operator,
Cingular Wireless has managed to get apatent on the concept of usingemoticon onmobile 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 anSMS - if selected via a dedicated or softkey, would be a breach of the patent in future.
There is a division of opinion on news sites about whether the application is pending or has been granted.
I presume sending emoticons in
See further:
Engadget
Consumeraffairs.com
