Wipe That Smile Right Off Of Your Round, Yellow Orb

There seems to be some contentiousness in the world of the happy face. This text was found on a site that offered "“Smileys" for PC (not Mac) users:

"Some internet companies have copied our icons by using yellow, round faces to express various feelings. Those companies are counterfeiters and are being sued for their infringment of our Intellectual property. We believe that use by others of yellow, round faces as icons is damaging to our Intellectual property. If other parties really wanted to be different from us, they would use a color other than yellow, or an oval face, for example, to make their icons dissimilar to ours. Additionally, they could add distinguishing ears or a nose to their face-shaped icons."

Let me quickly go off on a tangent and ask, why the random capitalization and lack of spell check? Talk about adding humor.

Now, on the one hand, I think people could use distinguishing noses and ears for originality's sake -- though eyes being the window to the soul and all that they might bring more expression to the experience than ears. But I am not sure (having done little more than taken a passing glance at this site) that this company really can say that they are the originators of the round, yellow smiling (or otherwise) face. They are, however, the registered owner of the name Smiley, which leaves me wide open for a big fat lawsuit for not using the appropriate registration mark. Would they send a cease and desist complete with round, yellow faces to express various feelings including Your Ass Is Ours? I guess I will have to wait and see.