should wal-mart get to own the smiley face?

[karyn]

from bbc

Wal-Mart seeks smiley face rights

Wal-Mart is embroiled in a legal dispute over the smiley face image which it wants to trademark in the US.
A Frenchman who claims to have invented the yellow smiley face back in 1968 is opposing the US retail giant's move.

For some, the image is a reminder of 1970s counter-culture, for others, a useful shorthand when sending e-mails.

But since 1996, Wal-Mart has used the image in the US on uniforms and promotional signs, and it wants sole rights to it in the US retail sector.

Global rights

Franklin Loufrani - just one of a number of people who profess to have invented the image - has marketed the sign since the early 1970s.

It's a mark that we have a tremendous investment in and is very closely identified with our company

Wal-Mart

He and his London-based company SmileyWorld today own the rights to the logo in more than 80 countries around the world.

The US is not included in this list, and SmileyWorld and Wal-Mart are now at loggerheads before the US Patent and Trademark Office.

A final decision is expected in August.

Ironic

Until now the smiley face had been considered in the public domain in the US, and therefore free for anyone to use.

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley told the Los Angeles Times that it had not moved to register the trademark until Mr Loufrani had threatened to do so.

"It is kind of ironic that this whole dispute is about a smiley face," said Mr Simley.

"But in the end, it is what it is: it's a mark that we have a tremendous investment in and is very closely identified with our company."

SmileyWorld said it did not have anyone who could comment on Monday.

Disputed creation

The authorship of the smiley face is hotly disputed.

While Mr Loufrani says he came up with the image in 1968, American Harvey Ball contends that he first designed the logo in 1963.

Mr Ball, a Massachusetts graphic artist, claims he devised the cartoon to cheer up disgruntled staff at a newly merged insurance firm.

Another American, Seattle-based advertiser David Stern, also claims to have invented the image.

Mr Sterns says he devised the sign in 1967 as part of an advertisement campaign for financial services firm Washington Mutual.

Both Mr Ball and Mr Stern further say that they did not think of trademarking the image at the time.

Since the 1970s, the smiley face has been adopted by a number of different groups.

It appears on number plates in the US state of Kentucky, has featured on an American postage stamp and was the unofficial symbol of the late 1980s acid house dance music movement.

The image was also spoofed in the 1994 movie Forest Gump, in which the title character inadvertently comes up with the logo by rubbing his wet and dirty face on a white T-shirt.

[Morning Glory]

so everytime I do this I have to pay ten cents to walmart?

that's hot.

oh shit, here's my ten cents, Paris.

[GnArKiLL]

This is almost as bad as DC comics wanting to own the rights to the phrase "Super Heroes" or some shit like that

[sheramil]

Walmart should be granted the rights to the smiley face, but only the one with a bullet hole in its forehead and a trickle of blood running down its nose. every Walmart employee should be issued with either a badge or a t-shirt with this logo, and the words "PLEASE KILL ME" underneath.

[Anarkey]

so everytime I do this I have to pay ten cents to walmart?

that's hot.

oh shit, here's my ten cents, Paris.

lol hehehe pay up ,,




oh crap!

[Buster Friendly]

hopefully the court will rule that this is bullshit, and that these companies should shut the fuck up on account that the smiley face is too prevelant to be trademarked.

[Bondage Clown]

hopefully the court will rule that this is bullshit, and that these companies should shut the fuck up on account that the smiley face is too prevelant to be trademarked.

Didn't this happen with another company. They wanted to trademark the smiley, But they lost... I agree With Buster... with another

Message to Wal-Mart... SHUT THE FUCK UP, and go bankrupt. (Or give us more $1 swag)

[bohoki]

i always thought that NAMCO should sue walmart it is a blatant pac-man rip off

[malcolm]

and just think of it. the firkcing thing is a simple yellow circle with cartoon black eyes and a mouth.

[sheramil]

and just think of it. the firkcing thing is a simple yellow circle with cartoon black eyes and a mouth.

the Wiccans should get together and claim the circle as theirs. "We've been making them for centuries."

[mmmcherry]

what in the fuck?!
fuck you walmart. im gonna sue for the rights to the smily face and GIVE IT TO THE WORLD!! everyone can use it however they want, except walmart.
they can go die in a hole.

[bohoki]

they may have a point their smiley may be distince since it is in the shape of an asprin infact it looks a bit like a nuprin (little,yellow,different)

it is a 3d shape if m&ms didnt make the yellow m&m mascot the peanut one (shaped like mr.potato head) he would have looked like the walmart smiley

seeing some of the things that people can trademark, copyright and patent
they will probably give it to walmart

[Anarkey]

well they been useing some one eslse's shyt all these year and never payed a dime for it ,,,cuzz the other 3 guys have been fightin for the smiles right the whole time.. and now they want the fyck face for free ,,Fyck wall-mart..
shop smart...


shop S-mart ..

[Mirren]

That's like trying to copyright, I feel good. I hate Walmart.

[Anarkey]

do it lol

[Jax]

Im so glad our mayor wont allow wal mart to build here in the city;]

[Morning Glory]

I just got this in my email right now.

"The people of Atenco, Mexico are being brutally repressed by police trying to evict poor flowersellers from land where a new Wal-Mart is slated to be built.

From Wal-Mart Watch:
“The municipal president wants to evict these people because he thinks their market leaves the area dirty and he wants to put a commercial center, a Wal-Mart, in Texcoco,” Marcos said before thousands of people during a public rally in Tlatelolco. The peasant flower venders have been resisting eviction for weeks. The area they occupied has been targeted by local officials for a new commercial center. As part of the People in Defense of the Land, the flower venders have been joined by people in struggle from Atenco, a town adjacent to Texcoco. “The Zapatistas are, today, Texcoco,” Marcos said. “We are going to be alert to their demands.

Closure of streets, highways, flyering, painting, protests. We respect their decisions, we will arrive to where they tell us to go.” The Chiapas Center for Independent Media (CMI) said that Wal-Mart “is an unwelcome guest for many Mexican intellectuals, artists, working people and activists.

This is not the first time Wal-Mart has encountered problems moving in on new territory…(Atenco) is a reflection of growing outrage about Wal-Mart’s unethical business practices, notorious union-busting, and general disregard for the people affected by their pactices.” '


(details here: http://narconews.com/Issue41/article1834.html
and here:

http://walmartwatch.com/battlemart/a...ced_for_a_wal/)

there's going to be a demonstartion here about it, I don't know if any similiar events are going on elsewhere.