Nudge Nudge ;-) ;-) Russian wants your emoticons->
Submitted
by
ric482
ric482 writes "An interesting story has emerged today regarding one Russian man's attempt to lay claim to emoticons — a series of punctuation arks used to convey an emotion in a text message.
The Russian, entrepreneur Oleg Teterin claims that he was granted the trademark for the ;-) [;-)] emoticon by the Russian federal patent agency, however critics have been keen to point out that emoticons have been used in the public domain for many years now, putting a dampener on Teterin's claim.
Mr Teterin says he will chase down any firms that are using the emoticon without his permission. He ranted on Russian television channel NTV, frothing at the mouth presumably, "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.""
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