Pitch-correction technology developers Antares, progenitors of that infamous little auto-tune cult empire, want us to get one thing straight right the fuck now: the term “auto-tune” is NOT as ubiquitous as we all auto-tunitively assumed it was.
In order to set about the task of auto-tuning our perceptions, then, they recently sent their lawyers to auto-tune their trademark of the term in the face of a competing App created by developers Steamboat Mountain Designs (heretofore called “AutoTuner”), forcing the company to auto-tune the name of their auto-tuner.
Why all the fuss? Well, if you auto-tune your memories real quick, you’ll recall that Antares recently lent its auto-tune technology to the auto-tunious “I Am T-Pain” auto-tuning App for the iPhone, in auto-tuned conjunction with App developers Smule. As Digital Music News reports, Steamboat initially pointed in their defense to the hundreds of thousands of Google results for the phrase “auto-tune.” Yet in the end, the company -- being much smaller and less rich than Antares because they AREN’T the owners of an omnipresent-yet-trademarked term like “auto-tune” -- was auto-tuned into complete and auto-tuned accordance with Antares’ request. Steamboat Mountain’s developers have consequently auto-tuned their App’s title to “RoboTuner” instead of “AutoTuner” rather than bankrupting themselves in court and having to then plead (in an unpleasingly un-auto-tuned warble) with the federal government to step in and auto-tune them out of debt.
So, on that auto-tuned note, look for the newly auto-tuned "Robotuner" in an App Store near you. It’ll be on the shelf in the auto-tuner isle, right next to all of the other auto-tuners.
