With patents essentially acting as ammunition these days for when companies go up against each other, we guess we can’t say we’re surprised to learn that even emoticons used on your phones were not spared. In this case, it looks like both RIM and Samsung are targets of a couple of patent trolls, Paid Content and Varia Holdings, who claims that both companies have infringed upon their patent which “results in the display of a list of emoticons for selection by the user.”
For those unfamiliar with either company’s products, there is a button available during messaging that will call up a list of various emoticons that can be selected by the user. Apparently this is the patent that both RIM and Samsung have allegedly infringed upon. It does seem rather frivolous, and we’re not sure what the outcome will be.
