Imagine if all math books in future will have to include a footnote saying: "All greek letters' trademarks are property of their respective owners" :)
A is for Apple™...
Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
21–29 of 29 posts
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#22A dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7827524.
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#23How does this happen? Who are the people who decide what is a valid patent/trademark and what isn't? We all here look at each other in disbelief (figuratively). Yes someone granted the the trademark thinking this is valid thing to do. I guess, thinking about it. No matter how indignant I would get about this topic, I really don't see myself dropping programming and applying to the Patent Office. It seems to me this i…
This case is about a trademark, not a patent. Any word or symbol that identifies a source of goods can be a trademark. Hence Apple getting a trademark on using the word "Apple" to sell computers even though people have been using the word "apple" to refer to fruit for hundreds of years. (The same goes for "Amazon" despite the river, "Windows" despite the ventilation system, and "Beats" despite the existence of rhythm…
I think the trademark office needs some reform as well. As I understand the process of an application first involves a search to check that the term hasn't been trademarked before or that very similar trademarks don't exist - not to check whether the term has been used before. The trademark is then "published for opposition" in the weekly trademark office Gazette, at which point anyone who believes they may incur damages from the trademark being granted (people selling "I love π." t-shirts) should contact the trademark office. In this case, the application can be seen on page 893 [0].
If I am selling something do I have to hire someone to check this every week to ensure someone doesn't file a trademark for any terms I have used? There is also the same thing for patents.
[0] http://www.uspto.gov/web/trademarks/tmog/20131112_OG.pdf
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#24I wish newegg would bait this guy with a pi-themed sale or event.
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#25How does this happen? Who are the people who decide what is a valid patent/trademark and what isn't? We all here look at each other in disbelief (figuratively). Yes someone granted the the trademark thinking this is valid thing to do. I guess, thinking about it. No matter how indignant I would get about this topic, I really don't see myself dropping programming and applying to the Patent Office. It seems to me this i…
Generally I think it's a sort of two-step the patent/trademark trolls do. They go to USPTO and apply for IP based around a narrow reading of their application, and then they attempt to enforce based on a broad reading of their IP once they have it.
The narrow case here (that a trademark can be "pi" plus some additional character) is not super far-fetched (though maybe the period isn't enough). But then the broad case (that anything using "pi" infringes) is the excessive bit. It may have appeared totally clear to the guy granting the trademark that "pi dot" wouldn't grant any claims to "pi", but its not clear to enforcement authorities.
This is compounded by this sort of stuff almost never seeing the inside of a courtroom. Patent trolls push for settlement so they never have to litigate their broad claims on their patent, and they can move against trademarks with a cease-and-desist or DMCA claim, which basically every company folds to without reading, on the advice of their lawyers.
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#26How does this happen? Who are the people who decide what is a valid patent/trademark and what isn't? We all here look at each other in disbelief (figuratively). Yes someone granted the the trademark thinking this is valid thing to do. I guess, thinking about it. No matter how indignant I would get about this topic, I really don't see myself dropping programming and applying to the Patent Office. It seems to me this i…
This case is about a trademark, not a patent. Any word or symbol that identifies a source of goods can be a trademark. Hence Apple getting a trademark on using the word "Apple" to sell computers even though people have been using the word "apple" to refer to fruit for hundreds of years. (The same goes for "Amazon" despite the river, "Windows" despite the ventilation system, and "Beats" despite the existence of rhythm…
> Any word or symbol that identifies a source of goods can be a trademark
This is not exactly like Apple I think.
This is about printing texts on T-shirt. It is only a small step further from printing texts on a white paper.
Moreover it is about printing a letter in the Greek alphabet that also happens to be a common mathematical symbol.
I can see maybe if the trademark was about very specific font and color combined. They anyone else could just pick a different font. It doesn't seem to like that.
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#27Are people allowed to trademark an arbitrary letter of an arbitrary alphabet? How about arbitrary collections of letters that may or may not form a 'word'?
Yes and yes. "IBM" doesn't form a word, but it's a perfectly valid trademark and you would be sued into oblivion (quite fairly at that) for trying to sell computer software or hardware as "IBM." Gatorade has a trademark on a capital "G" in the field of sports drinks because consumers have come to recognize the "G" line of products. "Google" is a mostly-made-up word (it was at least unfamiliar before Google became pop…
>Yes and yes.
That's all I needed to hear. Trademarking 'pi' is therefore nothing more than exactly this.
There's therefore no need to rage out.
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
This case is about a trademark, not a patent. Any word or symbol that identifies a source of goods can be a trademark. Hence Apple getting a trademark on using the word "Apple" to sell computers even though people have been using the word "apple" to refer to fruit for hundreds of years. (The same goes for "Amazon" despite the river, "Windows" despite the ventilation system, and "Beats" despite the existence of rhythm…
> Any word or symbol that identifies a source of goods can be a trademark This is not exactly like Apple I think. This is about printing texts on T-shirt. It is only a small step further from printing texts on a white paper. Moreover it is about printing a letter in the Greek alphabet that also happens to be a common mathematical symbol. I can see maybe if the trademark was about very specific font and color combined…
This is NOT about printing texts on a Tshirt.
It is about a company trying to brand itself as "pi." (why they would want to do that is beyond me) JUST like Apple branded itself as "Apple"
This company will make clothing apparel. This does NOT stop anyone else from putting the symbol pi on a tshirt. You just can't do it in a way that makes it look like you are the "pi." company.
Re: Artist trademarks 'Pi' symbol, enrages the web
#29IANAL but I'm pretty sure that a judge would never rule that there was possibility of confusion between all of these products on Zazzle and Pi Corporation. I think the real issue here is that Zazzle needs to exercise more discretion on which cease and desist letters it follows.
ESPECIALLY when the C&D talked about copyright infringement.