Ahh…the symbol pi (π) – do you remember the first time you encountered it? I think it was in middle school right? I recall it being the cause of many nightmares for a lot of my friends (or maybe it was just math in general). I was always decent in math so I was pretty neutral on the topic. However, like most of you, I was happy to see the last of the subject (and all related symbols) after my first year in college. That being said, I knew that math was something that belonged to all of us… it’s a product of the universe and no one person could ever make a personal claim on it.
So imagine my surprise when I came across an article by David H. Bailey and Jonathan M. Borwein discussing how the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) actually granted a nationwide trademark of the Pi symbol with an accompanying period (i.e. π.) to a Brooklyn based artist Paul Ingrisano. According to Bailey and Borwein, “there is nothing stylistic or in any way particular about Ingrisano's trademark; it is simply a standard Greek Pi letter followed by a period. That's it: Pi period.”
And this artist is very serious about protecting his trademark! Again, per Bailey and Borwein, he recently:
“sent a letter to Zazzle.com, a Pi novelty company, demanding that they ‘[i]mmediately cease and desist’ their ‘unlawful’ usage of the Pi trademark or ‘any confusingly similar trademark’". If they failed to comply with Ingrisano’s demands for an accounting of sales, inventory and disclosure of products using the pi sign, etc. within 14 days, the “letter threatened attorney's fees and ‘treble money damages’”.
It should be noted that Ingrisano also believes that products without the period after the pi (i.e. just a basic π ) is covered by their trademark because a simple pi sign looks “similar enough that folks out there might confuse it with products that my client also sells."
Bailey and Borwein have called upon the USPTO to rescind this trademark but in the meantime, what does that mean for you?
- Well, it means you probably should stop using the π symbol in any product you use unless you are willing to challenge Ingrisano's trademark. AND
- Now that you know that the USPTO is giving out trademark for basic mathematical symbols, you might want to do a trademark check for things such as 5!, ∞…, etc. before using it in business names, logos, products, etc.
It’s funny, I thought there were few things in the law that could still shock me, but this one definitely threw me for a loop! Pi is now trademarked… do you think Ingrisano could send his “cease and desist letter” to middle schools, high schools and colleges around the country and, in so doing, save many of us from mathematics hell?
