The SarcMark may one day appear in your Internet conversations and TV news broadcasts.

Michigan-based company Sarcasm Inc. invented a sarcastic symbol, the SarcMark, to help people “never again be misunderstood” and “to ensure that no sarcastic comment or opinion is left behind,” according to the company website.

The symbol looks like an open circle with a dot in the centre. “It is roughly the size of other characters […] [and] it behaves like other font characters,” Paul Sak, spokesperson for the company, said in an e-mail to news.com.au.

The SarcMark can be used in instant messaging, texting and in the “ticker” which scrolls at the bottom of TV news stations for the hearing impaired.

The company website explained the emoticon can substitute a person’s tone or inflection, which cannot be conveyed online or in print.

Sarcasm Inc. is selling its symbol in a SarcMark software package for $1.99 on the company website.

—Jennifer Wong