It seems like every iOS update features more inclusive emoji. But Katrina Parrott, a Black mother in Texas, is still fighting to get recognised for inventing skin-tone emoji in 2013. That year, Parrott's daughter expressed her disappointment in the lack of Black emojis, so Parrott did what any mother would do — created a solution. She hired a team to create an app called iDiversicons, which offered emoji in five skin colours and was available for download in Apple's App Store. However, Apple released its own skin-tone emoji (which had five skin tones similar to Parrott's original creation) in 2015. For the next several years, Parrott attempted to get a patent, and she filed a lawsuit against Apple for copyright infringement in 2020.
A US district judge tossed the case last year, and Parrott is still fighting for her patent. Many others are fighting to get her work recognised too, including Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. According to Buzzfeed News, the lawmakers wrote a letter of concern to the US Patent Office in regards to "the disproportionate challenges that small businesses, women, people of colour, and other underrepresented minorities face in the patent approval process."
Image Source: Getty / Sudowoodo Dominik Bindl Stringer Artem Varnitsin EyeEm