
Does Pinterest own the word “pin”? - andreyvit
http://niftylettuce.com/posts/does-pinterest-own-the-word-pin/#
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kevinpet
It's a service built on top of Pinterest, using a confusingly similar log
(same color and scripted P), which uses the word "pin" to refer to a piece of
content posted on Pinterest.

Throw in some confusion of trademarks with "you can't copyright a font" for
good measure and you have the perfect regularly scheduled "I'm being screwed
by a big company that I won't bother to mention is being totally reasonable"
post.

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milesskorpen
While IANAL, the issue isn't just "pin" — it's the word + the color + the
font, all of which make the logo a lot more similar to Pinterest than the word
alone suggests.

~~~
rosser
Exactly. Moreover, that's one of the nicest C&D letters I think I've ever
seen:

 _We ask you to ... [c]learly indicate that your service is not an official
Pinterest service - after all you deserve the credit :)_

For a corporate communication of any sort, let alone a lawyergram, that's
positively pleasant.

~~~
rpgmaker
Screw that, in words of Theodore Roosevelt: "speak softly, and carry a big
stick."

~~~
rosser
Or maybe they were thinking more along the lines of honey versus vinegar, if
we're going to try reducing something as complicated as trademark law to
clichés and homilies.

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throwaway420
When people advertise your brand for free, even in the smallest way, you are
behaving rather foolishly when you start sending threats to them.

This is a relatively minor incident in the grand scheme of things, but
Pinterest is just shooting themselves in the foot here.

While there are some complicated legal issues involved with so-called
"defending your IP so you don't lose it", the biggest thing I see here as a
developer is that one of the bigger social networks is using its time and
energy to crush somebody that is effectively advertising their brand for free
and is quite literally no threat to their interests.

As a developer, I see what companies like Twitter do when they get popular and
make it difficult for others to build products and this makes me concerned.
When Pinterest inevitably releases their own API, why should developers invest
time and energy developing products that benefit the Pinterest brand when
there's a chance that the effort will be wasted because their lawyers are
trigger happy?

Pinterest is one of a handful of companies that has a chance to sort of
challenge Facebook down the road. My advice is that their management should
work with their lawyers to avoid screwing their own reputation. This is
salvageable for Pinterest and an opportunity for them to clarify that they are
developer friendly and not a dumb, faceless corporation like Twitter has
become.

~~~
rosser
How exactly do you read "let's make sure that your awesome work doesn't get
confused with ours" as " _crushing_ " someone?

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pud
Notice the author lists dozens of other infringing companies in the "Similar
Services" section.

This is known as the "throw 'em under the bus" technique and is often an
infringer's first line of defense.

Note: I'm not taking sides. Just pointing out the phenomenon.

~~~
andreyvit
I think the point here is that all of those companies still work, and hardly
take any effort to find, so Pinterest does not care anyway.

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smartician
IANAL, but I think trademark violations don't hinge on just one element (i.e.
name, or in this case, prefix). It's the combination of the name, logo, and
the use of a pinterest.com URL as the central piece of this service, which
might confuse users, thinking this service is affiliated with Pinterest. I
think their letter explains this pretty well, and I couldn't spot the "threat"
in it? There was just a vague hint of "consequences".

BTW, <http://pinteresf.org> now redirects to pinterest.com. I wonder if they
got a similar letter, and as a result handed over their domain?

~~~
hkmurakami
_> There was just a vague hint of "consequences"._

Though these can probably be used in court proceedings as "defendant
previously received notice/requests from us... which were not complied with"
or something along those lines

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sauravc
Question for a lawyer: Isn't Pinterest required to send these letters out or
risk trademark erosion?
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark#Trademark...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark#Trademark_erosion))

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thedanfilter
It looks like most of those have been applied for but are not yet registered.
I'd be very surprised and (shocked/dismayed/appalled) if Pinterest was able to
register a trademark for the word "PIN".

That said, INAL (I'm not a lawyer), but I believe legally they could argue
that because you are using a word that is Prefixed with "pin" and that your
product also a service related to Pinterest that there could be confusion as
to whether PinPigeon is a product of Pinterest's or not.

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kunai
TINLA, but to be honest, I don't have much sympathy for the original author.
The letter wasn't threatening at all, it was polite and worded nicely. Its
contents also pertained to the use of a Pinterest-styled logo, the similar
typeface, and the general look and feel that made the site feel a lot like an
official Pinterest-authorized site.

I thought the same as soon as I visited the site as well.

