A Russian businessman has copyrighted one of the world's most popular emoticons or Smileys, the winking face: ;-).
Russian entrepreneur Oleg Teterin has said that he will begin charging companies that use the popular emoticon: "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."
It's not the first time that a crafty wheeler dealer has been granted a trademark for a Smiley. Back in 2006 Finnish student Tuomas Mattila was given copyright on a large number of emoticons.
