Wal-Mart Fights for 'Smiley' Ownership

The yellow smiley face may strike most people as an overused piece of e-mail shorthand, or a cute interjection in the scribbled notes passed between American teenagers, or a throwback to the era of bright happy colours in the 1970s. But to Wal-Mart, the world's largest and most controversial retailer, it represents big money and a legal battle it fully intends to win.

Wal-Mart has long since adapted the smiley face, in its familiar yellow-balloon incarnation, as its unofficial logo, plastering it on shopping bags, promotional posters and many retail items in an effort to make people feel good when visiting its often soulless, discount superstores with their endless aisles and vast suburban car parks.