Penned by Brittany Stoker
Over the past year, there has been a shift in the Pinterest business ecosystem. This shift has been centered on websites that have the word “pin” in their brand name or URL. At first, Pinterest didn’t seem to mind, but in May of 2013, they began to enforce their trademark on the word “pin.”
Pinterest sent letters to businesses demanding them to modify their names or face legal action. Since then, many popular Pinterest tools altered their name to remove the word “pin.” Here are just a few companies who have had to change their name:
In the cases of Pinerly and Pintics, it seems they are still having an identity crisis. Repinly has completely rebranded away from Pinterest to Instagram, stating on their website that they are “the most powerful web tool for tracking and organizing your Instagram account.” Most companies didn’t shift their focus; they simply got a new name and moved on.
As of this morning, our sister website PinAlerts, has announced that they are also changing their name. For PR reasons, they stated that the change is due to user confusion between Pinterest and PinAlerts. However, we have the inside scoop that the new name was, well, better.
If you go to the PinAlerts homepage, you will see a notification announcing the new name. We won’t ruin the surprise for you, but we have to agree that not only is it a solid name, it also overcomes any trademark issues or user confusion.
We believe this will be a good transformation for PinAlerts. They are working on some exciting things. The new brand will only further help them solidify their leadership in the ever changing social media industry.
Here’s the official announcement (PinAlerts new name press release).