Interesting...
I appears, somehow my system font was changed (or I assume).
If I copy/pasted the formulas into NotePad I received the HTML 4.01, ISO 10646, ISO 8879, Latin extended A and B, format (the curly double quotes).
If I copy pasted the straight up and down quotes (from NotePad) - the rule was accepted.
Now to figure out where the font selection for InfoPath designer is set.