UPEP 1 :-THE EXPENSIVE SMILE

 In 1963, American commercial artist Harvey Ball was hired to create a picture for buttons, desk cards, and posters. The happy face was created in less than 10 minutes. And it was an instant success, meeting State Mutual's goal of having its employees grin while going about their daily responsibilities of answering the phone, rejecting claims, and laying off colleagues. It was a huge success. He did not partake in the popularity of the picture he developed since he did not copyright or patent the design. All he received directly from his efforts was a $45.tep forward from brothers Bernard and Murray Spain from Philadelphia.

They stumbled upon Ball's emblem design and felt that together with the motto "Have a joyful day," would help cure America's post-Vietnam blues. So they trademarked the image and tagline and began creating their own novelty things. By the end of 1971, they had sold over 50 million badges and other trinkets, making a tidy profit. In France, Franklin Loufrani, a journalist, was the first to register the mark for commercial use in 1972, when he used a smiley face to emphasize the, admittedly few, occurrences of a pleasant news item in the pages of France Soir.

He later trademarked the Smiley image in over 100 countries and founded The Smiley Company by selling T-shirt transfers. SmileyWorld Ltd currently owns the logo rights and earns $265 million (£204 million) every year.