The pin may have finally dropped on trademark cases that Pinterest has been chasing in the U.S. and UK. In the U.S., a judge has ruled in favor of a travel startup called Pintrips, in a case where Pinterest was trying to get the startup to cease use of the terms “pin” and “pinning.” Meanwhile, in the UK, location-based mobile directory Free118 won a fight against Pinterest for the right to use the phrase “pinmydeal” for one of the central actions of its service. Both court decisions are embedded [in the linked article].
But although it has had setbacks in these two cases, Pinterest has not ceased fighting others. The U.S. company is still in the middle of a case in Europe over a region-wide trademark on the word “pin”. However, some believe trademark decisions against Pinterest are likely to put an increasing amount of holes in Pinterest’s arguments.
Pinterest has declined to comment on the Free118 case in the UK, but from what we understand there are no plans to appeal the decision reached by the Trademark Office (the deadline for doing so is at the start of November). We have reached out to the company to ask for its reaction to the Pintrips case in the U.S. and will update this story as we learn more.
Together, the two cases can be seen as a victory for companies that have used or would like to use variations on the word “pin,” but have more recently faced legal pressure from Pinterest when doing so because the social network believes that it causes too much confusion with consumers between its own company and others. Misappropriation of its name has over the years been a thorny issue for Pinterest, where it has actively discouraged companies who work with it from using names that can be seen as variations of its own.
“If you’re creating an app, website or other service designed to be used with Pinterest, give it a distinctive name,” Pinterest writes in its brand guidelines. It’s fine to say the product is for use with Pinterest as long as you pick a distinct brand for your product. Don’t use ‘pin’ or ‘Pinterest’ in the name. Don’t register a domain name containing ‘pin,’ ‘pinterest’ or any misspellings, transliterations or similar variations on Pinterest.” Easier said to partners than completely separate businesses, it seems.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @02:23AM
Copyright and trademarks have little to do with each other. Copyright applies to the "creative expression of ideas". On the other hand, trademarks are designed to reduce confusion in the market-place.
To that end, Trademarks last indefinitely, while copyright lasts only 14, er, 28, er, 40, not 50, er life+50, oops, now life+70, uh life+95 years?
Trademarks also do not have to be unique: they apply to specific fields of endeavor or even geographies. However, one thing about trademarks is that they can not actually describe the product. If your trademark becomes known as a generic term, you lose it since competitors are allowed to describe their own products. I cringe every time I hear a trade-mark that sounds like it is describing the product.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Tuesday October 27 2015, @10:22AM
one thing about trademarks is that they can not actually describe the product
You mean like Microsoft cannot get away with "Windows" and "Office" as trademarks?