I continue to maintain my census of U.S. cases referencing emojis or emoticons. In 2023, I logged 225 such cases (this number will grow a bit due to lags with the electronic databases). The case count continues to grow exponentially. The 2023 count represented a 17% increase over the 2022 count.
2023 marked a significant milestone: my census now counts over 1,000 total U.S. cases referencing emojis and emoticons (the exact number is 1,017). Recall the caveat that I can only track cases I can find, so my census surely undercounts the actual number by a lot. And cases that reach the electronic databases are only a small fraction of the total judicial activity involving emojis and emoticons. View the 1,017 cases as a tip of the iceberg when it comes to courts and emojis.
I have posted my updated emoji and emoticon census here. Email me if you see any errors.
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Some other emoji law highlights from 2023:
* A Canadian farmer discovers that a thumbs-up emoji can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
* Tweeting a moon face emoji could constitute stock fraud.
* Similarly, a court says “the ‘rocket ship’ emoji, ‘stock chart’ emoji, and ‘money bags’ emoji objectively mean one thing: a financial return on investment.”
* A judge incorporates the exploding head emoji into his opinion to express his disdain for a party’s arguments.
* The “I Love You” emoji isn’t registrable in European Trademark Office.
* A court says the “water” emoji is slang for meta-amphetamines.
* Prisons can’t categorically ban emojis in prisoner correspondence.
* Emojico loses a SAD Scheme case.
* I did a Q&A on emoji law.
* The Free Law Project now allows caselaw searches by Unicode emoji!!! They even call it the “Eric Goldman feature.” 
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