Xiaomi Introduces Familiar-Looking Mimoji ⇥ theverge.com

Nick Statt, the Verge:

Now, Apple doesn’t own the concept of virtual avatars. It also doesn’t even own the trademark for Memoji. So it’s not fair to say Xiaomi is stomping all over the iPhone maker’s intellectual property; as VentureBeat notes, the concept behind and the use of the phrase memoji existed prior to Apple’s introduction of it into iMessage last summer at WWDC. Additionally, Samsung beat both companies to cartoon AR avatars with its slightly more horrifying Galaxy S9 AR Emoji feature back in February of last year.

There is a lot of prior art here, but it’s pretty clear what Xiaomi is aping with Mimoji. The Ripoff Express seems to keep chugging through Xiaomi’s station. It’s kind of their thing.