Samsung, RIM both sued for violating patent on emoticons
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An illustration from the patent |
The patent was filed in late 2005 and was granted to Seattle start-up firm Wildseed in early 2007 The latter was acquired by AOL and spun off as Varia Mobile which took the emoticon patent with it. Interestingly, while Varia Mobile seems to own the patent, it is Varia Holdings that is the plaintiff in the case. Obviously, both firms are connected. By the way, the actual title of the patent is "Emoticon input method and apparatus" and is number 7,167,731.
How the court will rule is hard to predict. On its face, the idea of protecting the concept of choosing emoticons from a menu instead of typing them out character by character seems a little absurd. On the other hand, Samsung and RIM still have to take this seriously because huge sums of money could end up involved here, especially when you look at the number of different handsets cited in the filing. Emoticons have been the subject of patents before. Back in 2006, AT&T (then Cingular) filed an application for a patent that would cover 35 claims relating to emoticons. Among the claims was a method of selecting "smileys" using a dedicated key. The selected emoticon can be inserted into a text message, email or IM.
source: arstechnica
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13 Comments
1. B3BLW29 posted on 20 Mar 2012, 22:27 4
Mobile world is becoming like Middle east, where patent wars start over any damn reason..
2. Lucas777 posted on 20 Mar 2012, 22:37 1
im surprised they keep it so scoped.. maybe to test the waters, cause wp uses this patent in the os
3. Droid_X_Doug posted on 20 Mar 2012, 23:16 2
This is just the start. Before anyone at Varia starts thinking sales injunction, they have to withstand the inevitable challenges to the patent. And, worst case if Varia wins, Sammy (and RIM) just disable the infringing function. I doubt they (Sammy and RIM) will lose any sales over the user not being able to select an emoticon from a menu as opposed to having to type in the character combination.
If ever there was a bullsh*t patent, this has to be high on the contender list for the award.
4. christianqwerty posted on 20 Mar 2012, 23:25 1
Poor rim,suing them is like kicking someone when they are down.
8. itzmando posted on 21 Mar 2012, 00:06 0
Lucas777.
I wonder if he will get annoyed if someone were to type the complete opposite from what he write just to see get pissed off. But that would just feed the troll.
9. GeekMovement posted on 21 Mar 2012, 00:08 2
Wow this is kind of stupid to be honest... hope Samsung and RIM can pull through.
17. sheepygalaxy posted on 21 Mar 2012, 03:59 1
another day another pointless patent war when will this madness end
18. andro. posted on 21 Mar 2012, 06:37 1
This is another appalling patent,next we Will find out that some unknown company has a patient for the procedure: 'pressing menu,insert item then insert word'
19. GuiltyBystander posted on 21 Mar 2012, 06:58 0
I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
