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# Artist Trademarks Pi, Inadvertently Trolls Internet
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/artists-trademarks-pi-inadvertently-trolls-internet/
- Published: 2014-06-03T12:38:10.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:44:19.000Z
- Description: Art practice today can be a confusing thing, and Brooklyn-based artist Paul Ingrisano's decision to trademark the symbol for pi followed by a period has caused a furor online.
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: News, Copyright, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![artist-pi-640](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/06/artist-pi-640.jpg)

Art practice today can be a confusing thing, and Brooklyn-based artist Paul Ingrisano’s decision to [trademark the symbol for pi followed by a period](http://www.wired.com/2014/05/pi-takedown/?ref=hyperallergic.com) has caused a furor online when his lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Zazzle, a consumer generated printing service, for merchandise displaying the symbol. The absurdity of the claim is based on the fact that pi is not only a 3,000-year-old mathematical constant, but the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.

One Zazzle seller,[ Dave Lartigue](http://www.daveexmachina.com/wordpress/?p=8880&ref=hyperallergic.com), blogged about the ridiculous claim to all things pi:

> Yes, you’re reading that correctly. Zazzle is claiming that *the mathematical symbol pi is trademarked*. Or rather, it’s saying that someone told *them* it’s a registered trademark and they believed them.  
> … McDonald’s can trademark a letter M of a certain design. This does not give it ownership of every instance of the letter M, however.

The [official trademark document](http://trademarks.justia.com/857/85/pi-85785006.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) is online, and the decision — the company cited the [Lanham Act](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanham%5FAct?ref=hyperallergic.com) to one seller — caused a massive furor as geeks everywhere revolted. Thankfully, Zazzle has since changed their mind and [reinstated all pi-related merchandise](http://forum.zazzle.com/create/re%5Fpi%5Ftrademark?m=970045&ref=hyperallergic.com#970045).

It appears the artist has his heart, or <3, set on another common symbol, [I <3](http://news.artnet.com/art-world/artist-who-trademarked-pi-symbol-has-designs-on-ilt3quot-31754?ref=hyperallergic.com), but I’m guessing he won’t be getting his way after this trademark drama.

The moral of the story is if you’re a trademark troll you can’t have your pi and … well, moving on.

[Zazzle Pi Trademark Letter](http://www.scribd.com/doc/227367808?ref=hyperallergic.com)