In 2006, America’s retail giant Walmart attempted to trademark the yellow ‘happy face’ logo which has long been used to create the company’s brand identity in its stores. The attempt to register this mark seemed impossible from the outset, given that the smiley face image has been around since the 70’s. But Walmart persisted with its effort, even attempting to sue a man named Charles Smith for making a parody of their logo. Still, Walmart failed in its efforts and the smiley face remains available to the rest of the public.