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Russian trademarks the emoticon

news.bbc.co.uk — A series of punctuation marks used to convey a wink in text messages - known as an emoticon - has been trademarked in Russia, says a local businessman.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 12, 2008

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  • Barence, on 12/12/2008, -0/+102;-)

    sue me
  • gamebittk, on 12/12/2008, -0/+77¯\(°_o)/¯
    © 2008
  • talonstriker, on 12/12/2008, -1/+58░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
    ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░Try trademarking me Russkies!░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
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  • 10goto10, on 12/12/2008, -0/+55In Soviet Russia, colon, dash and parenthesis use YOUR FACE to add context to messages!

    ;-)
  • quii, on 12/12/2008, -0/+52The 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".
  • orangederange, on 12/12/2008, -2/+47:O They beat microsoft to it! :P
  • marksism, on 12/12/2008, -0/+31I like that they quoted the word "retards" on the BBC.
  • TheObviousChild, on 12/12/2008, -0/+30OGC

    Suck it, Russia!
  • TriSight, on 12/12/2008, -1/+30Was I the only one that thought this was an Onion article before they saw the link?
  • WordsnCollision, on 12/12/2008, -0/+23Did they also trademark the <:^__)~~
  • gamebittk, on 12/12/2008, -0/+23whoops wrong symbol

    (._.)™
  • Mujokan, on 12/12/2008, -0/+21☭ ＋ ™ ＝ ☠
  • str3ama, on 12/12/2008, -0/+21ahh..don't you just love it when some douchebag steals from the publicdomain?
  • charm803, on 12/12/2008, -2/+22(>^_^)> <(^_^<)
  • Nouman6, on 12/12/2008, -2/+19you know if apple had trademarked it, you'd have a court letter 30 seconds before you posted.
  • thewade, on 12/12/2008, -0/+17Dugg for that quote alone.
  • Sublex, on 12/12/2008, -0/+17As long as Pedobear is good, Digg should be fine.
  • bamafun, on 12/12/2008, -3/+16I can tell already this is going to be one of those priceless comment threads.
  • wefarrell, on 12/12/2008, -1/+14I'm gonna trademark the O======8
  • Monarch818, on 12/12/2008, -1/+13(-o-) Darth Vader will fix it!

    .., or should we send Luke Skywalker 8>o<8
  • LOGNATR, on 12/12/2008, -0/+12Funny that the one culture who stereotypically emotes the least tries to trademark something like this...
  • charm803, on 12/12/2008, -0/+12:'(
  • Samurai77, on 12/12/2008, -0/+11DUCK its a BOMB!


    J/K Boston we still think its funny.
  • MAGZine, on 12/12/2008, -0/+10;-)™

    Who cares, anyhow? It's always ;)
    >8-)>
  • inactive, on 12/12/2008, -0/+10Other Russian internet entrepreneurs reacted to the effort predictably - >:(
  • Mujokan, on 12/12/2008, -0/+10Where would the patent industry be without 'em?
  • eredeath, on 12/12/2008, -1/+10And in related news: Random series of two symbols following the letter "F" and proceeding the letter "K" has been trademarked by a small start-up company named F#@k You Russia.
  • Pushkin, on 12/12/2008, -1/+10Anyone has a facepalm emoticon handy?
  • addiktion, on 12/12/2008, -0/+9BREAKING NEWS: Russia destroys the already failing copyright system by snatching up emoticons after Russia alleged tried suing 88 million Americans.
  • mattvander, on 12/12/2008, -1/+10<(O_O<)^_^<)

    butt sects
  • inactive, on 12/12/2008, -0/+8How about 'In soviet Russia, emoticon trademarks you?'. Not anymore.
  • ZephyrNinety, on 12/12/2008, -0/+8But how can you copyright a symbol that's made out of symbols?
  • Mujokan, on 12/12/2008, -0/+8(◜╭╮◝)
  • metaliq, on 12/12/2008, -1/+8I copyrighted "publicdomain"
  • RevLoki, on 12/12/2008, -0/+7I just trademarked "Profit" lists.
  • jcsw, on 12/12/2008, -0/+7Didn't despair.com already trademark :-( ?
  • mattvander, on 12/12/2008, -0/+7Now you have to say "Eight Equals Equals Equals Equals Capital D"
  • slumtrimpet, on 12/12/2008, -2/+9I'm surprised nobody has done the whole...

    1. Trademark emote icons
    2. ????
    3. Profit

    post yet. Those are always good.
  • 2thyme, on 12/12/2008, -0/+6Nope, these guys have the trademark :-(

    http://despair.com/frownonthis.html
  • Dalogi, on 12/12/2008, -0/+6"Mr Teterin said he would chase firms using the symbol without permission." He's gonna have his work cut out. Good luck ;-)
  • Sublex, on 12/12/2008, -1/+6(>^_^)>/*

    I have a flail.

    Don't make me use it.
  • commentbot, on 12/12/2008, -1/+6°¿°
    -

    They ain't gonna trademark mine:

    8====> (())


  • OwdenBowden, on 12/12/2008, -0/+5;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

    Wow I feel so much better...
  • sifeliz, on 12/12/2008, -1/+6<(ಠ_ಠ)>
  • inactive, on 12/12/2008, -0/+5=(_8^(|) Homer anyone?
  • tvanwyk, on 12/12/2008, -0/+5"But how can you copyright a symbol that's made out of symbols?"
    Try these:
    "But how can you copyright a piece of sheet music that's made out of symbols?"
    "But how can you copyright a block of source code that's made out of symbols?"
    "But how can you copyright a novel that's made out of symbols?"

    Is copyrighting an emoticon fundamentally any different than copyrighting a piece of sheet music that's made out of symbols, or a block of source code that is basically a collection of symbols?

    ***** like this is the logical conclusion of intellectual property. You start by making "reasonable" "intellectual property" concessions and eventually you hit the absurd... like granting trademarks for things that have been used openly on the internet for years. And that's the problem with intellectual property in general. It leads to ridiculous *****.
  • Aethirig, on 12/12/2008, -1/+6You two are why we can't have nice things. (>:[)
  • oninbonin, on 12/12/2008, -0/+5***** awesome! I hope you can see this because I am doing it as hard as I possibly can..
  • kirado4, on 12/12/2008, -0/+4illegal..
  • onlysc, on 12/12/2008, -0/+4that's just weird
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