A Russian entrepreneur has trademarked the popular emoticon 
making other entrepreneurs that didn’t think of it first 
Oleg Teterin, president of Russian mobile ad firm Superfone claimed that he was not planning on chasing down individual users of the 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 holderâ€.
Teterin claimed that “Companies will be sent legal warnings if they use the symbol without his permission”.
It is unclear as to whether he plans to punctuate said letters with his new trademark.
Mr Teterin points out that companies wanting to use the emoticon can obtain an annual license: “It won’t cost that much” he said, “tens of thousands of dollars” causing some companies to feel 
Teterin is not just stopping at he believes that 
, and look like his trademark and therefore could also be owned by him.
The BBC report that Alexander Malis, from the firm Vympelkom, plans to get back at Teterin by trademarking brackets.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time such a case has emerged in Russia. In 2005 a Russian man sued Siemens for using luckily, Siemens’ appeal was upheld. 
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