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So who was the first to invent the smiley face?

The authorship of the smiley face is hotly disputed.

While a Frenchman Mr Franklin Loufrani says he came up with the image in 1968, American Harvey Ball contends that he first designed the logo in 1963. Mr Ball, a Massachusetts graphic artist, claims he devised the cartoon to cheer up disgruntled staff at a newly merged insurance firm.

Another American, Seattle-based advertiser David Stern, also claims to have invented the image. Mr Stern says he devised the sign in 1967 as part of an advertisement campaign for financial services firm Washington Mutual.

Both Mr Ball and Mr Stern further say that they did not think of trademarking the image at the time.

Since the 1970s, the smiley face has been adopted by a number of different groups. It appears on number plates in the US state of Kentucky, has featured on an American postage stamp and was the unofficial symbol of the late 1980s acid house dance music movement.

The image was also spoofed in the 1994 movie Forest Gump, in which the title character inadvertently comes up with the logo by rubbing his wet and dirty face on a white T-shirt.

Wal-Mart has been trying to register the smiley face as theirs and this has been the subject of much legal debate.

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