Auto-Tune Developer Knocks Off Auto-Tune Knock Off

Auto-Tune is becoming an all-too-common embellishment in music and iPhone apps these days, especially for the developer behind the tricky technology that lets you keep this pitch-correction software in your pocket. Antares Audio Tech is the company responsible for the magical, giggle-inducing “I am T-Pain” app, and while they’ve spread the warbling joy to the masses, the techy troupe of nine employees are protecting their brand like it’s no one’s business, because to them, it shouldn’t be.

Rival developer Steamboat Mountain Designs recently created the “AutoTuner” app, a product strikingly similar to what the T-Pain app offers, only with a seemingly more generic title. Antares, however, doesn’t think so, and wrote in a cease and desist letter that “Steamboat’s use of ‘AutoTuner’ is virtually identical to Antares’ AUTO-TUNE mark, simply adding an ‘r’ at the end of the mark and removing a hyphen, and is used in connection with a software program that is directly competitive and functionally identical to Antares’ AUTO-TUNE product,” as reported by Mobile Crunch.

In contrast to Antares’ nine employees, Steamboat Mountain Designs runs as a one-man-machine. Its CEO Jeff Mathews stated that his company, unlike Antares, cannot afford the legal battle for his product name, adding that “[Auto-Tune] seems like common vernacular. For example, a Google search for ‘autotuner’ returns 157,000 hits. A search for ‘autotuned’ returns 283,000 and includes everything from ‘AutoTuned prank calls’ to ‘The AutoTuned News’. The Wikipedia page for ‘Pitch Correction’ returns the text, ‘An audio processor for correcting pitch in vocal and instrumental performances is called an autotuner.’”

Despite the growing casual usage of the “Auto-Tune” term, Steamboat officially changed their product title to a less preferred nickname, “Robotune.”

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.