Russian Man Trademarks The ;-)

By Christopher Nickson
December 15, 2008

A Russian businessman claims to have trademarked the wink emoticon in his country, and he's planning on charging businesses that use it.

Love them or hate them, emoticons are part of the common currency of online correspondence. But could you imagine trademarking one?

Russian businessman Oleg Teterin can. He says the Russian federal patent agency has granted him a trademark on ;-), the emoticon used to convey a wink, and he’s planning on charging companies that use it.

On the Russian television channel NTV he said:

"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."

He plans on selling licenses allowing use of the ;-), claiming "it won't cost that much - tens of thousands of dollars." Rather graciously, he won’t go after individual users of the emoticon, ...

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