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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?
https://tsdrapi.uspto.gov/ts/c...
his initials, Paul Ingrisano
Zazzle is probably erring on the side of not getting sued.
Zazzle.com. A web site that I've never heard of before, but won't ever be visiting...
Slashdot mucked up the formatting. (Of course, I should have seen this in the preview.)
Just replace "I 3" with "I <3" above.
Also, here's his new trademark: http://trademarks.justia.com/854/81/i-3-85481027.html
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
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
It's also too bad the general public is unaware of the difference between a trademark and a patent. ;-)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
This is the trademark: http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85785006&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
It's for the Pi symbol followed by a period. Literally. "The mark consists of the pi mathematical symbol followed by a period." So if I had a shirt that said "I like Pi." (using the symbol for Pi), my shirt would be in violation of his trademark. Furthermore, he might try claiming that just showing Pi by itself would be "confusingly similar." Not that he'd be successful, but he could threaten lawsuits which might make others back down due to an inability to fight a legal battle.
He's also filed for the common Internet "I Love" shorthand: I <3 http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85481027&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
As he doesn't currently seem to be USING these trademarks at all, he should automatically lose all rights to them.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Did you seriously read the patent? The patent is using the numbers in one of the claims as part of a mechanism. Schalfly is not patenting the numbers, just their use in a particular process. He is patenting the process, which involves using a designated set of primes to perform iterative calculations to compute "partial modular reduction of cryptographic variables."
The concept (using a designated something as a component in a patented invention) was the same in patent number 1. In this patent, gears and cogs were used to improve the efficiency of locomotives going up hills. What was patented was using gears and cogs in a particular configuration to accomplish a goal. Gears and cogs were not patented. The construction was patented.
The same thing here. The primes are not patented. You are free to use them however you want, as long as you do not use them in this particular machine to compute "partial reduciton[s] of cryptographic variables." Go ahead, use them as seeds in the dice roll generator for your RPG. Use them as dimensions of your mansion's living room. Print them out and use the paper to light a fire. You're allowed.
Zazzle is probably erring on the side of not getting sued.
By someone who probably can't afford a decent lawyer to bring a case that would be quickly tossed out of court?
No, Zazzle is simply a bunch of lazy ass wipes.
Solution: Don't use their site. I certainly never have....
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
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.
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
So if I had a shirt that said "I like Pi." (using the symbol for Pi), my shirt would be in violation of his trademark.
Except, it wouldn't.
The trademark prevents you from using it as a clothing brand identifier.
Having it be incidentally used on clothing is not infringing. This guy seems to think it is, but it doesn't work that way.
I don't think he's got a leg to stand on, but the problem with this stuff is it costs time and money in the form of lawyers to prove that.
This is just further evidence the USPTO are morons.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
You're fooling yourself! We're living in a dictatorship, a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes...
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'.
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...
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.