Russian Businessman Trademarks Winking "Smiley"

;)

[trillianjedi]

According to Russian media reports, however, telecoms entrepreneur Oleg Teterin has been granted a trademark on one of the most common icons in circulation — the combination used to denote a winking face: ;-).

Teterin said he plans to charge companies that used a virtual wink in the course of their business.

"Legal use will be possible after buying an annual license from us," he told Kommersant news. "It won't cost that much – tens of thousands of dollars."

[guardian.co.uk...]

Link bait?

[rocknbil]

I've always been annoyed by teh. If I trademark teh and charge for it's use, maybe that will put an end to it . . . . . NOT! ;-)

[LifeinAsia]

Actually, Dispair, Inc. [despair.com] has been using :-( with some sort of mark (can't tell if it's (C) or (R) on my computer) for a long time.

[arieng]

From the Guardian article...

At the height of the dotcom boom, meanwhile, Texan "demotivational" poster company Despair Inc was granted a trademark on the sad-faced - or "frowny" - emoticon: :-(.