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Russian Hopes To Cash In On Emoticons

Posted by timothy on from the but-cyrillic-is-full-of-emoticons dept.

drewmoney writes "According to a BBC article, Entrepreneur Oleg Teterin said the trademark for the ';-)' emoticon was granted to him by Russia's federal patent agency. 'Legal use will be possible after buying an annual licence from us,' he was quoted by the newspaper Kommersant as saying. 'It won't cost that much — tens of thousands of dollars,' added the businessman, who is president of Superfone, a company that sells advertising on mobile phones. 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.'" Teterin may have gotten the idea by catching up on some old news about Despair, Inc., which in May 2000 was awarded a US trademark on the "frowny" emoticon (Slashdot story).

10 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Provocation by MadDogX · · Score: 5, Funny

    :-) ... Am I doin it rite?

  2. Re:Fine with me by Andr+T. · · Score: 5, Funny
    RTFA. You're doomed.

    He also said since other similar emoticons - :-) or ;) or :) - resemble the one he has trademarked, use of those symbols could also fall under his ownership.

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    Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

  3. Imagine the scene by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

    Judge: Oleg Teterin?
    Oleg Teterin: Yes? :-)
    Judge: We have ruled that you don't have a patent on the emoticon
    Oleg Teterin: Oh :-(
    Everyone else: lol! :-P

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    Summation 2
  4. Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark by MindKata · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "What lame-brain dummy would think that either :-( or ;-) are trademarkable symbols"

    The kind of person who would think of trademarking these symbols, would be a businessman who wanted to use this cheap stunt, to get a lot of publicity for his business. Its not about the trademark. Its a stunt, to generate free publicity for his business.

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    There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
    1. Re:Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark by ideonode · · Score: 5, Funny

      They're not commas but apostrophes that fell of the "it's" and wandered upstream like salmon.

  5. Patent THIS: by AndGodSed · · Score: 5, Funny

    :-*

    my

    (_|_)

    >:-(

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    Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

  6. Patent by loonycyborg · · Score: 5, Funny

    You keep using that "patent" word. I don't think that it means what you think it means.

  7. In soviet russia C-: own you by Tei · · Score: 5, Funny

    Two counterfeigted version:
    C-:
    (-:

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    -Woof woof woof!

  8. Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? by JJJK · · Score: 5, Funny

    you forgot "you insensitive clod", you insensitive clod!

  9. Re:Fine with me by SharpFang · · Score: 5, Funny

    You asshole, I ran this as a Perl program and it erased my hard drive.

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