Someone Has Trademarked the Symbol for Pi and No One Is Happy About It

π. That little symbol right there has been trademarked. Now, you might very well ask how it’s possible to trademark a mathematical symbol. Well, one Brooklyn artist managed to get the trademark because he uses the symbol on shirts his company makes, and no one’s really happy about it…

Paul Ingrisano obtained the trademark this past January. And, it should be noted, it’s not the symbol itself that’s under the trademark. It’s the pi symbol followed by a period.

And yet, that was enough for Ingrisano to get Zazzle to take down every single product they were selling with the now-trademarked pi symbol on it, including shirts and such.

And one man’s “π + e” equals pie t-shirt was taken down, even with no period next to the symbol. In response, he planned to file a counter-notice to this “asshattery.” However, as of May 30th, Zazzle is back to selling products with the pi symbol on it.

[h/t CBC]
[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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