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Zazzle.com Thinks Depictions of Pi Are Protected Intellectual Property
Byteme writes: "A number of Zazzle.com users have had their art and products removed from the site after a man named Paul Ingrisano was granted a trademark for 'Pi Productions' using a logo that consists of this freely available version of the pi symbol from the Wikimedia website combined with a period. He made infringement claims against several websites, and Zazzle took down many clothing products that featured designs using the pi symbol. When users called them on it, they locked a public forum thread and said they're evaluating Ingrisano's complaint."
i better get to work on my "/." logo copy right
God invented Pi. don't get his lawyers into this...
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
If the trademark has a period, and the clothing designs etc do not, how does Dazzle justify that being a trademark infringement?
Because if that is legal, I am going to trademark ng on red signs with STOP on them and sue the gov't for using something too similar.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
https://tsdrapi.uspto.gov/ts/c...
Lets kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
1. Fuck that guy.
2. Lets switch to Tau http://tauday.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau
The original deep link to USPTO.GOV is broken. Are we talking about registration# 4473631? That specifically covers the stylized "pi mathematical symbol followed by a period." There is no exclusive right given for the symbol pi by itself or in other contexts.
That's a lotta textbook publishers to sue right there. They have deep pockets.
Fraternities ... mathematicians ... physicists ... the universe.
Whatever moron gave a trademark on the symbol for pi should be staked to an anthill.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
his initials, Paul Ingrisano
Paul Ingrisano also owns "I 3" ..... Yeah ok.
Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
Trademark, not copyright. Different rules apply.
.... and claiming omega as a trademark! :-D
What's a good Greek letter for a beer brewery to claim? (Salty Cowdawg Brewery)
R. Schlafly (1994) obtained U.S. Patent 5373560 on the following two primes (expressed in hexadecimal notation):
98A3DF52AEAE9799325CB258D767EBD1F4630E9B
9E21732A4AFB1624BA6DF911466AD8DA960586F4
A0D5E3C36AF099660BDDC1577E54A9F402334433
ACB14BCB
and
93E8965DAFD9DFECFD00B466B68F90EA68AF5DC9
FED915278D1B3A137471E65596C37FED0C7829FF
8F8331F81A2700438ECDCC09447DC397C685F397
294F722BCC484AEDF28BED25AAAB35D35A65DB1F
D62C9D7BA55844FEB1F9401E671340933EE43C54
E4DC459400D7AD61248B83A2624835B31FFF2D95
95A5B90B276E44F9.
Too bad the general public is too apathetic to see how completely retarded patenting a common mathematical symbol is when the dam thing has been in use for THOUSANDS of years prior.
Reference:
* http://mathworld.wolfram.com/P...
This guy is seriously trademarking the common shorthand for "I love" next: I 3
First Pi (with a period after it) and now I 3. What other common symbols will he attempt to trademark? LOL? RTFA? HTTP?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
It does no good to note that Zazzle has "caved" in to protecting their existence against a seemingly nonsensical legal challenge. How can we fix this situation?
You can't copyright or patent math, but it seems you can trademark it!
Zazzle.com. A web site that I've never heard of before, but won't ever be visiting...
nine
like yours? our is your CORN hole special?
Introducing my new trademark:
Zazzle.
http://i.imgur.com/XmlkzKv.png
Notice the period on the end... it makes it unique! I will be contacting Zazzle shortly about taking down their entire website.
oh wait...NEIN!
we don't think it's the same thing. put briefly, we just think that your fairy tale pure capitalism can't exist, and that its supporters are naive dupes of the cronies and neo-feudalists.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
(n/t)
we just think that your fairy tale pure capitalism can't exist
"His name was James Damore."
mine is. according to your mom anyways
That specifically covers the stylized "pi mathematical symbol followed by a period."
Oh dear. I guess we'll have to fix all textbooks to remove infringing uses of pi at the end of a sentence..
Example of infringing use:
The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is .
Non-infringing alternatives:
The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is ! :)
The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is
, what the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is.
suer duper
So all i need to do is copyright the most commonly used letter, and i'm set for life.
I officially, in public forum, claim the letter E, and any commonly known permutations of it, as my own, and i reserve all rights for its use. Pay up suckers.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Angie's List tried to use threats of a lawsuit to bully me into removing REFERENCES TO THEM from the Internet because I had bad things to say about their double-dipping legalized extortion business model. Companies actually think that they own the things they trademark, as if they can control who says their name. Trademark abuse is a rampant thing, but most people who face it don't say anything publicly because of the fear of actually being sued. I don't have a solution but I can definitely say that Angie's List can shove it up their asses.
Ma Bell, "AT&T" to the unwashed, used a symbol of a bell in a cricle. They never trade marked it. Then some jack ass trade marked it. AT&T lost the case. I think wistle butt just may a leg to stand on, if a letter can be trade marked.
Yawn ... do you know what you would have without a state? Nothing.
You wouldn't have an education, running water, roads, a hospital to have been born in, or an internet to use to bitch about the state. You'd probably be someone's property.
You know what they call people who want to overthrow the state? Terrorists.
You might choose to call yourself a revolutionary. Go ahead. You'd be in good company with Chairman Mao, Pol Pot, and Joseph Stalin.
And, you'll probably whine about how the state does everything with a gun pointed to your head. If it wasn't the state, it would be someone else.
And what you're idealizing is pointing a gun to the head of everyone else and saying they must accept your wonderfully deluded reality. Again, just like Chairman Mao et al ... if we could only force the masses to see how divinely right we are, they would understand. But if they won't understand on their own, they must be made to understand.
Bravo, sir.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
All your homework are belong to us.
we just think that your fairy tale pure capitalism can't exist, and that its supporters are naive dupes of the cronies and neo-feudalists.
I thought we were an autonomous collective.
Dark Reflection
Sometimes a state does need to be overthrown, but it is always replaced with another one (which hopefully is better, often is worse).
You nailed it. The other guy/s are loons.
Paul Ingrisano
1933 73rd street
Brooklyn, NY 11204
Apperently, he's an arteeest.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
And the ones most loudly calling for it are typically the last people you'd entrust with creating the new one.
Because they're crazy fucking idiots.
And - yes - Zazzle.com can risk millions of dollars in lawsuits instead of complying. It's not reasonable to expect them to do so, however. Businesses should always operate in a way that maximizes their short- and long-term profitability. Often, one must be balanced against the other, but being sued out of existence won't benefit them or their customers.
I shall once more put the question: how can we fix the situation? Simply assigning blame isn't enough.
You're fooling yourself! We're living in a dictatorship, a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes...
Better to own the domain, anyways. That's why I own I8-D.com. I leave the interpretation of my art up to my audience... is it a smiley face... or something more insidious!
I8-D
That thief owes me money!
Seriously, this patent thing is getting way out of hand.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Then some jack ass trade marked it. AT&T lost the case.
I would like to read up on this case. Links or citations of news, magazine, or journal articles about the the case would be useful. Contemporary references would be best. If those aren't available, court case information or the equivalent information if it was decided by the USPTO or then-equivalent agency would be helpful.
Thanks.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Well, beyond being, as you say, crazing fucking idiots, often it is the case that the people who want revolution are really seeking disproportionate power of their own, often with even less of the population behind them then the current government. Just look at the US, most of the pro-revolution crowd makes up fairly small groups who are angry at having to share power with others who they view as 'not real americans'.
we just think that your fairy tale pure communism can't exist
What "technology?" The issue here is that some asshole filed for a trademark for putting a common symbol (which has existed for thousands of years) on clothing (which has also existed for thousands of years), and some moron at the USPTO granted it.
The fact that many of those infringing on this ridiculous trademark sell using an online store is completely incidental.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I jumped through the preview, but thanks for the correction
Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
The issuance of a nonsensical trademark like this is almost certainly a result of the revolutionary nature of the WWW. Any effort to do this back in the seventies or before (patent a common symbol) was vastly harder to do. Instead of dealing with web entities (many of which will cave in rather than fight), they were dealing with publishers who had a stronger interest and better capacity to fight such nonsense.
Nowadays, we have Apple patenting rounded corners on cell phones, Microsoft patenting a method to pay for services by mouse click, etc. Until the law catches up, we're going to encounter situations like this.
Yawn ... do you know what you would have without a state? Nothing.
You wouldn't have an education, running water, roads, a hospital to have been born in, or an internet to use to bitch about the state. You'd probably be someone's property.
Usually when I hear the word "statist" it is not arguing for anarchy, or to overthrow anything. It is a word used to denote those who are attempting to put the state in crontrol of all areas (or significantly large areas) of personal life. The ones speaking about "statists" are usually arguing for a return to a limited (but still present) government, as defined in the original context of the constitution. The point being that, when it is not ignored completely, the constitution is being seriously/purposefully misinterpreted in order to increase the power of the national government.
This is all speaking from the perspective of the USA, but statists can / do exist anywhere.
Note that it is possible to still have roads, education, hospitals, and the internet without resorting to the over-regulation of an omni-present government.
McFly777
- - -
"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?" -Marilyn Pittman
I can understand how many in this community would think that because a trademark (or copyright) has been registered, the registrant has "carte blanche" to use it and prohibit others from using it. That is, after all, how domain registrations work...
What a registration really is is the filing and recognition of a CLAIM to ownership rights. The USPTO does do a search to make a determination of its own as to whether the registrant has any rights in a trademark, but that is far, far from conclusive. There are examples in the caselaw where some unknown guy out in the middle of Iowa has been using an unregistered trademark, someone else comes along later registering that same or a similar trademark (innocently and coincidentally), and the registrant can't stop the little guy from continuing his use. What the registration does is to put the world on notice of the intent of the registrant to use the registered trademark, and give him an avenue against parties who come along later wanting to use it. The registrant still has to prove in court that it has ownership rights, EVEN THOUGH it has registered the trademark.
So this "PI." trademark could be attacked in a number of ways. It could be that the registrant really hasn't used (or continued to use) it in the marketplace. The symbol is arguably so generic that trademark rights cannot be had. Sometimes trademark rights are restricted to one field of use, and others get to use it for something else. And, from the example above, it could be that the alleged infringers started using the symbol before the registrant did.
So what our legal system prescribes is that Zazzle and their suppliers go consult with their own attorneys, competent in trademark law, and decide whether they need to change their products. That's what lawyers are for...
Sure, but in reality, as time passes people find new and creative ways to try to cheat the system and screw others over.
So you get a longer list of "no, you definitely can't do that".
Unless, of course, you actually like the idea of melamine in pet food and baby formula.
These are not issues "the market" is capable of self correcting -- because saying people are free to not buy a product which is poisonous is a stupid argument.
As society and technology gets bigger and more complex, guess what? The laws required to keep it sane and orderly do as well.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
From the trademark application:
Paul Ingrisano
1933 73rd street
Brooklyn NY 11204
719-419-0800
PaulIngrisano@aol.com
Fuck overpriced Zazzle. I go to Spreadshirt.
I'm friends with some artists, and the problem with Zazzle (and many other sites like them) is that actually stolen content gets submitted all the time, and they probably got sick of getting 1000 emails from an artist and all of that artist's fans for someone effectively stealing a design and submitting it as their own.
This guy doesn't have a leg to stand on, but it doesn't mean that nobody ever has a reason to complain. The reality is that the internet is a place where people try and pass things off as their own constantly. That's bad enough, but when someone starts making money off of your art--your original, actual art--it becomes really damaging to you. People start thinking YOUR design is the fake, even though it's the original. It sucks.
So yeah, this is lame and bit lazy, but not immediately responding to an infringement notice is also lame and lazy.
... and copyright... these guys are trying to rent seek on the oddest things.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
The trademark registration was transferred to the baby Bells upon divestiture. A short time later, the judge handling the divestiture ruled that AT&T had to stop using it because it was owned by the regional Bell operating companies (baby Bells).
Lets keep God out of it too; his people are crazy.
that stupidity isn't painful. Add to that, greed.
saying people are free to not buy a product which is poisonous is a stupid argument.
But people ARE free to not buy a product. A whole lot of the pet owners I know refuse to buy any pet products labeled 'Made In China.' It didn't take any form of governmental organization for them to decide this.
As society and technology gets bigger and more complex, people become better and more rapidly informed. But we still need a certain number of duffs to work for the Government. I agree with that.
There is a balance in trademarks between distinctiveness and familiarity. Perhaps the guy with the "Pi." mark should be required to make his mark more distinctive. I could go for that.
Perhaps the trademark examiner should have applied a higher standard for distinctiveness than he did...
That sounds like it's only for marks that are pending, not for those already granted. And who hears about them before something idiotic is granted.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
How much work does it take to create it ? type two letters. Did he actually invent it? No absolutely not - search through historical literature and I guarantee that somewhere there will be pie symbols with full stops - probably some that are over 100 years old. This copywrite-trademark is just another attempt at legal theft.
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
How can one trademark a letter? How about we band together and trademark the letter "i" and then take every company from Microsoft over iRobot to Apple (iMac, iPod, iPhone) to court for violating out trademark. One billion dollars please per infraction!