No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by german_gremlin »

My boyfriend informed me that Wal-Mart is being sued because they are using they Smiley-face as their Mascot. They villain who is suing them? The Georgia man who made the "Have a Nice Day" Smliey-face tees. Poor guy...he did sell the smilie first. "Oh grow up, ya hippie. How many years did ya have to sue them? Pain in the ass."-Wal-Mart CEO. Lol.

[Edited on 14/5/08 by german_gremlin]

[Edited on 14/5/08 by german_gremlin]
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Saint Kurt »

Actually, what's really happening is that Wal-mart is just now attempting to trademark and therefore own a symbol that has for decades been in the U.S. copyright public domain.

So, a lot of different people from all over the U.S. are stepping up and claiming to have invented the symbol in order to keep it from becoming a licensed corporate symbol owned by a company with very questionable business practices. If Wal-mart loses, they can still use the symbol for free. If they win, use of a common recognizable symbol that is embedded in our culture will not be possible without paying Wal-mart for the privilege.

I really hope the symbol stays in the public domain. If that makes me a hippie then I will never grow up.

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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by wingyding »

Two things: Trademarking the smiley is stupid. and suing Wal-Mart because you made tee shirts with the same smiley is, if possible, even more so.

Whoever wins, wins. Not much the vulgar masses can do in this case.
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by steyn »

I'm actually cheering for the hippie guy. Hey, if he even makes money out of this, then it can't be that stupid. =)
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by littlebamf »

Agreed, Steyn. Power to the hippie masses!
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

I have to agree on cheering for the hippie. I have no love for Wal-Mart. NONE! I love my city for not allowing Wal-Mart into it ;). But Em's right, how much would it suck to have to pay royalties to WAL-MART every time you want to use a smilie face? Especially considering it is documented that they did not invent the logo. If anything, the guy who put out the Have a Nice Day stuff deserves to patent it far more than Wal-Mart does. Really, is Wal-Mart SO hard up for cash that they need to bank on something that has been a free part of our culture since the 70s??

And to just make it more....home, think of it this way. Were Wal-Mart to patent that...what would happen to alot of forums that use the traditional yellow smilies?

[Edited on 12/5/08 by NachtcGleiskette]
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Freak »

I want to point out that part of your beloved TJ smiley is also a traditional yellow one :shifty
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by fourpawsonthefloor »

Well precicely. It's almost like the theft of public property. So yay for the little guy standing up against it.
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Booo wal-mart!!

Yay little guy!!




:thumbdown:thumbdown:thumbdown the situation stinks of legal red-tape and hopefully won't get it. I mean honestly do they have to own everything?
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Saint Kurt »

Little guys. :)

Depending on where in the world you are, the smiley face is not free. In the U.S. it is part of the public domain, but in most of Europe and Asia, it is a copyrighted symbol with a trademark owner. That trademark owner doesn't want to give up the U.S. rights if he doesn't have to.

And there are several Americans who all claim to have invented it.

What Wal-mart wants to do is obtain the U.S. trademark rights to it as their business logo.

So the dispute is between all these people and Wal-mart, but it's based on Wal-mart trying to own something those people never demanded rights to. So the legal question is: who has the most right to the symbol? Wal-mart has it plastered all over everything and it is recognizable. These other people claim it was never invented to be a corporate logo and it's ubiquitous due to its long public domain status. It is a kind of legal arms race I think.

In that way, it is kind of stupid, but to me the point remains. I believe that Wal-mart would attempt to collect royalties for its use or bar others from using it, not to mention forever change the meaning of it. Public domain means no one owns it so Wal-mart is technically free to "take it" if they can show they have a legal reason to.

As far as it's use on forums and chat etc... Wal-mart wants the retail trademark. This would not affect this kind of "free" fair use of the symbol. (It would mean you couldn't put it on t-shirts and bumper stickers though.)

This is similar to the Apple Computer vs. Apple Records dispute a few years ago. Apple Records (which was the Beatles' label and came first) allowed Apple Computer to share the trademark because they were in two completely different sectors. When iTunes came along, Apple Records sued Apple Computer for violating the agreement (that they would never be a "music distributor").

Apple Computer won, but ... ever notice that there isn't a single Beatles album on iTunes?

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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Elfdame »

Egad! I'm gonna get sued for using a semi-colon and close-parentheses!

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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by german_gremlin »

Even though I HATE Wal-Mart, the hippie had forever to sue over this. However, he may have sued them awhile ago and it has just now been heard in court. Still...whatever. I guess this will take a blow to Wal-Mart, so rock on little freedom-rider!!
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

Originally posted by german_gremlin
Even though I HATE Wal-Mart, the hippie had forever to sue over this. However, he may have sued them awhile ago and it has just now been heard in court. Still...whatever. I guess this will take a blow to Wal-Mart, so rock on little freedom-rider!!
The lawsuit isn't over use of the smilie, it's over trademark. Wal-Mart's been using the smilie for a while, but only now has tried to trademark. Hence the law suit.
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Can I sue wal-mart for being Wal-mart?
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by german_gremlin »

Oh...still, reallly childish. It's really quite silly to sue over something sooooo petty. Yes, Ult you can sue Wal-Mart for being just that....Wal-Mart.
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

Originally posted by german_gremlin
Oh...still, reallly childish. It's really quite silly to sue over something sooooo petty. Yes, Ult you can sue Wal-Mart for being just that....Wal-Mart.
It's not childish. It's a matter of rights to publoc domain. It's really more stupid for Wal-Mart to try to patent it. Do they really need so much more money that they need to take that symbol away from our free use?
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by german_gremlin »

I'm hoping the hippie wins and sticks it to Wal-Mart, that's all. I didn't mean that the hippie should cut his loses. I think it's just silly to sue over the smilie, meaning that Wal-mart should have settled it with the man without going to court about it. It's waste of the poor man's time. Wal-Mart should have know better and made a character all by themselves. Germany's stores had a huge Star before they tore all of them down. That's all. I didn't mean to offend. Sorry :(
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Saint Kurt »

I agree that Wal-mart should have just made their own logo and trademarked it.

But, the "hippie" happens to be a Frenchman who owns the trademark for the smiley in 80+ countries (note the copyright notice for the symbols on the bottom).

Also notice that everything on the site is free except the t-shirts, mugs, mousepads etc. You can plaster the symbol all over your computer, websites, chat client, forums, etc. for free.

Sure he could have sued Wal-mart at any time but why? The symbol is his nearly everywhere except the place where it belongs to no one. He owns it.

I'm not offended. It's a cool discussion. Great topic!

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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by german_gremlin »

Why thank-you! I use hippie cause I watched Forrest Gump..lol. Sorry. ahhhh. I feel better. Really a frenchman..huh? Never would have thought. And I'm a fourth french.
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by dwmjr1985 »

Actually wal-mart has also tried sueing people for using the smiley face before, because a website had a parody of it, they where ignoring the first amendment right of free speech. Here is a link to the page so you can read all about the case, the judge threw it out of court. Sorry if this forum is already over with, just wanted to throw in another piece of info. :)

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/28/wa ... radem.html
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No More Smiley-Faces @ Wal-mart?

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Thank you DWMjr.

I was hoping someone would eventually show Wal-Mart as the piece of greedy crap they are.
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