Russian Hopes To Cash In On Emoticons 213
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).
Provocation (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Provocation (Score:2, Funny)
Fine with me (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:5, 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.
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!
Patent THIS: (Score:5, Funny)
:-*
my
(_|_)
>:-(
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.
Patent (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Couldn't the folks who patented the typewriter. (Score:2, Funny)
In soviet russia C-: own you (Score:5, Funny)
Two counterfeigted version:
C-:
(-:
Re:Provocation (Score:3, Funny)
The IP patent race is the new 'Special Olypics'...
Other Patent (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Damn (Score:3, Funny)
D_mn, I'll be p_ying for my sig.
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.
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:5, Funny)
You must be new here.
Time to opensource emoticons (Score:4, Funny)
Re:In soviet russia C-: own you (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.
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 ; ).
Re:Imagine the scene (Score:1, Funny)
Oleg Teterin: Oh :-( ...
Judge: You don't have a patent on that emoticon either
Oleg Teterin:
Lawyer: *flicks through looking for a patent on ellipses*
Re:Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark (Score:1, Funny)
Re:There's No Such Agency... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:1, Funny)
This is Proof that (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:2, Funny)
On Slashdot, only old people use the "insensitive clod" meme.
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (Score:1, Funny)
Where Have I Seen This Before? (Score:2, Funny)
o
|\__o
Emoticons are funnier (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe this will stifle use and kill the format (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe this will stifle their use and kill the format.
Maybe this is a good use of the patent system.
I also think any web forum that uses them should pay through the nose to this guy for the revenues he has surely lost.
This will have the greater effect of stifling all such uses in the future.
The more I think about it the more convinced I am that this is an excellent use of the patent system.
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.
Re:Provocation (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Patent Office == Zoo filled with Idiots? (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.
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.
Re:Its a PR Stunt, not about trademark (Score:3, Funny)
Those were supposed to be ";-)" but he couldn't afford the licensing fee for anything except the ","
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...
''' ), ---.(_(__)
''
'
Re:Fine with me (Score:5, Funny)
You asshole, I ran this as a Perl program and it erased my hard drive.