Social media service Pinterest has filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit in California against travel startup PinTrips.
Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies.
Users can browse other pinboards for images, "re-pin" images to their own pinboards, or "like" photos. The popular site was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp. It is managed by Cold Brew Labs and funded by a small group of entrepreneurs and investors.
Founded in 2011, PinTrips.com is a Santa Clara, California-based startup. PinTrips claims that it turns the tedious task of planning and coordinating travel into a seamless experience by allowing a user to "bookmark" specific flights from all travel sites you already use, track and compare results on a main dashboard, and collaborate with others.
According to Pinterest, the startup was faced with a challenging business environment, so it deliberately adopted a name to cause confusion with its popular service. Further, Pinterest alleges that PinTrips deliberately uses a "Pin" button that Pinterest alleges is a knockoff of its "Pin It" button.
The full Complaint is embedded below:
The full Complaint is embedded below:
