consortium

Two 'consortium' stories December 2013 - March 2014

Apple working with Unicode Consortium to create more diverse emoji icons

Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.

Apple first introduced native support for the Emoji character set on the iPhone with iOS 5. A few character additions shipped with iOS 6, but that was the last update mostly because they’re based on a cross-platform standard and need to remain consistent across devices. That’s why it is important for Apple to work with the Unicode Consortium to update the standard to include more characters.

Apple-backed consortium reportedly planning to sell off patent portfolio

Rockstar, a consortium backed by Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and other tech giants, is planning to sell off most of its patent portfolio, according to Bloomberg. The group beat Google in a bidding war for these patents, which previously belonged to Nortel, but is now seeking to off-load them—or at least the ones that have served no purpose.

Rockstar does plan to hold on to a few of the key patents, specifically the ones involved in lawsuits against Google and other companies. Several of the patents have already been sold to Spherix Inc. as part of a deal that would include Rockstar sharing in any future financial profits based on the patents, according to the report. Sales of the remaining patents could result in similar arrangements.