Russian chancer trademarks emoticon

According to the BBC chancer, sorry, entrepreneur Oleg Teterin has been given a trademark for the ;-) emoticon by Russia's federal patent agency.

Mr Teterin said he would chase firms using the symbol without permission. "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....Legal use will be possible after buying an annual licence from us.... "It won't cost that much - tens of thousands of dollars,"

Teterin is apparently the president of Superfone, a company that sells advertising on mobile phones. 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. But he does not plan on tracking down individual users of the emoticon.

Alexander Malis, a director of the firm Vympelkom, said his company would not pay on principle, and jokingly suggested patenting brackets.

According to Russian media, Mr Teterin is not the first person to try to trademark the ;-) symbol in Russia. Kommersant said in 2005 a St Petersburg court upheld an appeal from the German corporation Siemens, which was sued by a Russian man claiming he held the trademark.

I daresay this was just a publicity stunt and I am sure Teterin is sincere in not wishing to sue individual so we can all use ;-) and :) with sweet abandon. If Mr Teterin wishes to sue the Poor Mouth I can be contacted here:

Jams O’Donnell

c/o Leopold Bloom

Pogmathoin Cottage

Strabóid Townland

Corkadoragha

County Lout

Ireland

On a serious note Teterin’s action is no more outrageous than patent taken out in the US in the 90s on the medical benefits of Turmeric . Luckily the piratical scumbags were given the bum’s rush....