A series of punctuation marks used to convey a wink has been trademarked in Russia by a local entrepreneur and president of Superfone (a company that sells ads on mobile phones), Oleg Teterin. He said the trademark for the ;-) emoticon was granted to him by Russia’s federal patent agency. But critics doubt the trademark’s legal basis as the emoticon has been in the public domain for years.
Mr Teterin said he would chase firms using the symbol without permission. “I want to highlight that this is only directed at corporations, companies that are trying to make a profit without the permission of the trademark holder,” Mr Teterin said in comments on the Russian TV channel, NTV.
The president of Russian social networking site odnoklassniki.ru, Nikita Sherman said: “You’re not likely to find any retards in Russia who’ll pay Superfone for the use of emoticons”.
Source: BBC News, 11 December 2008
Chapter: People :: 19 January 2009
