[5][6][7][8] The company creates products including textiles, puzzles, party goods, stationery, automobile accessories, and toys for licensed brand partners and retailers.

[11][12][13] Loufrani decided that the segment should focus on good news stories, but also needed a design to draw readers attention to the new section.

[15] The logo with the new smiley and subsequent good news segment were first used in the newspaper on January 1, 1972, and was accompanied with the slogan, "Take The Time To Smile.

"[16] According to recent publications from France-Soir, the new "good news" section was a huge success and caused other European-based newspapers to follow the trend.

France at the time was dealing with the aftermath of numerous civil movements, including May 68 which began with student protests.

[18] Other large corporations began to deal with Loufrani, including Levi's who were the first fashion brand to use a smiley on its jeans in the 1970s.

[23][24][25][26][27] His images, registered with the United States Copyright Office in 1997, were first published as GIF files on the internet in 1998, making them the first graphical emoticons used in technology.

[36] Nine years later, the USPTO initially sided with Walmart, before another federal court case was brought forward by Smiley in 2009.

[45] The Smiley Company's business model has been compared to Peter Drucker's theory that corporations could operate with a small team of senior management, with partnerships and outsourcing a major component when bringing products to market.

In the book The Michelangelo Project: Making It in the Digital Century Workforce, author Isabel Wu explained that The Smiley Company deployed a real-world example of Drucker's business theory.