Cingular Patenting the Emoticon :(

Another horror from the US intellectual property system…Cingular has applied for a patent on dedicated buttons for emoticons:

Abstract of US2006015812:
A method and system for generating a displayable icon or emoticon form that indicates the mood or emotion of a user of the mobile station. A user of a device, such as a mobile phone, is provided with a dedicated key or shared dedicated key option that the user may select to insert an emoticon onto a display or other medium. The selection of the key or shared dedicated key may result in the insertion of the emoticon, or may also result in the display of a collection of emoticons that the user may then select from using, for example, a key mapping or navigation technique.

This is not innovative, and I hope it gets knocked back… (via Textually)

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