Today's internet culture involves a lot of use of smiley faces and emoticon faces, which add feeling to text communication and eliminate ambiguity and misunderstandinds. Perhaps you'll notice them most often in chat rooms, forum posts, and email messages. But even though they are so widely used, most people have no idea how they originated and were developed
The first occurrence of this style of yellow smiley face with two simple black dots for eyes with a single line half-moon shaped
mouth, can first be traced back to advertising materials produced by Harvey Ball in 1963 on behalf of State Mutual Life Assurance Company as a freelance artist. In the 1970s, two men named Murray and Bernard Spain further popularized the icon by producing a line of noverlty items featuring the smiley image. This line of goods included mugs, buttons/badges, stickers, novelty shirts, and more, all featuring the slogan "Have a happy day". The uncomplicated image and message sent the clear message to busy people that life is precious, and they should enjoy every minute of every day.
The trademark to the yellow smiley face is claimed by many, including the mighty Walmart. Walmart utilized the smiley image in a massive 2006 promo campaign, and attempted to claim legal title to the image. A battle between them and Harvey Bell, as well as another company called "Smiley World" which licenses the smiley in many countries, ensued. In the year 2008, a judge ruled that Walmart did not hold the copyright to the image, and Walmart lost its legal case. Walmart subsequently removed the image from its advertising campaigns and website.
It makes sense that such a simple image could have been simultaneously produced by different people's imaginations with
no knowledge of the others.|With the smiley being such an incredibly simple image, it's natural that many people lay claim to
the image and claim they created it, even though other people's imaginations also created it at the same time.|It goes without saying that such a simple image can be developed simultaneously by the minds of several unrelated people who don't know of each other, and that they would all lay claim to the idea.|The smiley is such an incredinly simple image that there is little doubt that multiple imaginations could have "created" the same icon, so it makes sense that there are multiple copyright claims.} But it might be the best to grant the copyright to Harvey Ball, since he is committed to giving the proceeds from the smiley image to charity. This generosity reflects the values that are inherent in such a positive happy image.
Billy Bobb is a graphic designer and webmaster}. Check out his favorite clipart at
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