Slashdot Log In
Russian Hopes To Cash In On Emoticons
Posted by
timothy
on Fri Dec 12, 2008 07:17 AM
from the but-cyrillic-is-full-of-emoticons dept.
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).
Related Stories
[+]
Despair Suing 7,000,000 Email Users Over :-( 219 comments
Calle Ballz writes "According to an article on Despair's Website, they are suing 7,000,000 email users over trademark infringment for using the :-( 'emoticon'. I can't tell if it is a joke or not, I would like for it to be. The trademark registration is valid and is listed here. *sigh*" I would just like to say that our use of :-) is covered by fair usage. And that this is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.Update: 01/26 04:18 PM by H :Check out the press release about it - that's one of the best pieces of satire I've seen in a while. Kudos to Despair for making a mockery of trademarks. Update: 01/29 04:52 PM by CT : Apparently a bunch of retarded Slashdot readers couldn't discern that this was parody and mailed despair to complain. Little itchy on the flaming finger guys? Here's the NY Times story
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Provocation (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
There's No Such Agency... (Score:5, Funny)
Anymore anyway.
The name of the largest of the Russian successors to the KGB is the FSB, est. 1991.
AKA the Federal Smiley Bureau ; ).
Parent
In soviet russia C-: own you (Score:5, Funny)
Two counterfeigted version:
C-:
(-:
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think you'll find that they are already defined as "User is cat in the dark with Mushroom on Head" and "User is ninja cat in the dark about to perform Sumarai attack", respectively.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The IP patent race is the new 'Special Olypics'...
Re: (Score:2)
No. It's a winking smiley. Yours is not winking.
Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:5, Informative)
What lame-brain dummy would think that either :-( or ;-) are trademarkable symbols??? They both originated circa 1980 and therefore are public domain.
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:5, Funny)
You must be new here.
Parent
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark (Score:5, Funny)
They're not commas but apostrophes that fell of the "it's" and wandered upstream like salmon.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Those were supposed to be ";-)" but he couldn't afford the licensing fee for anything except the ","
Re:Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark (Score:5, Funny)
Tack "Captain's log, stardate 1234, " onto the front of his post and it flows much more naturally.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
(It's quite a long file. Begin at line 317.)
Re: (Score:2)
Patent office = zoo filled with interns, people fired from other better paid but higher requirement jobs, clueless friends of state-employed lowest-grade clerks and idiots unable to find any better job.
The job of a patent examiner is low-pay, low-qualifications, sucks major ass and is the low of the low you can get, so no wonder there are very few competent people doing it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
The Russian patent agency, for one.
Did I just say patent agency? I certainly did, and so did TFS.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What lame-brain dummy would think that either :-( or ;-) are trademarkable symbols??? They both originated circa 1980 and therefore are public domain.
I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. Perhaps Russian trademark law is different, but in the US, at least, it doesn't matter who creates the mark, or when it was created. What basically makes a mark protectable is that it is being used to identify goods or services so marked as originating from a particular source.
The word 'apple' has been around for
Fine with me (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Fine with me (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Parent
Re:Fine with me (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Fine with me (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I think there is a top hat and a bowtie in there somehow.
Parent
Re:Fine with me (Score:5, Funny)
You asshole, I ran this as a Perl program and it erased my hard drive.
Parent
Imagine the scene (Score:5, Funny)
Judge: Oleg Teterin? :-) :-( :-P
Oleg Teterin: Yes?
Judge: We have ruled that you don't have a patent on the emoticon
Oleg Teterin: Oh
Everyone else: lol!
This trademark is already invalidated (Score:5, Informative)
Rospatent has already invalidated this trademark because it's a generic image and doesn't offer Superfone any brand recognition.
Patent THIS: (Score:5, Funny)
:-*
my
(_|_)
>:-(
Previous art (Score:2)
Does that mean I won't be able to patent my new processus of using the character "" as pictographic symbol meaning "nose"?
"Entrepreneur"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Is this copyright worldwide? (Score:2, Funny)
Does this ruling apply worldwide?
If so, I am now a emoticon pirate. You will probably be able to get some at piratebay soon.
Re: (Score:2)
Patent (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Funny)
leeches (Score:2)
Other Patent (Score:5, Funny)
Time to opensource emoticons (Score:4, Funny)
Emoticons are funnier (Score:4, Funny)
In other news, (Score:3, Funny)
I have now copyrighted the word 'fuck', and would like to offer it's use to the world for the low, low price of $0.05 USD. Users may buy a volume license of 30 uses for a dollar. Sysadmins may obtain an unlimited license for $20/year.
Prisons happier places... (Score:4, Funny)
I mean, if you ban emoticons then only crminals will have emoticons.
Think how much cherrier prisons would be!!
hmmm... or more dangerous...
''' ), ---.(_(__)
''
'
Not so fast (Score:3, Interesting)
The rademark institution said that the smiley is an integral part of the "Superfone" logo, is not a trademark in and of itself, and is in fact incapable of being one.
Sorry to ruin everybody's party, but here [lenta.ru] is a source for those who can read Russian or are awesome enough for Babelfish.
The supposed use is wrong (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
kthxbye(c)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
D_mn, I'll be p_ying for my sig.