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A Guide To The Pinterest Counterfeit Takedown Webform
Pinterest – the digital pinboard where users share and express a world of inspirations. Pinterest best covers lifestyle, fashion, travel, crafts and designs. With over 290 million monthly active users, Pinterest’s core demographic is females, with the platform citing popularity with “moms” as it prepared to list on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2019. The successful IPO owed to Pinterest being more than just a platform for crafters, creatives and hobbyists to share images of their projects – conversion rates from Pinterest have consistently outperformed other popular social media platforms. Pinterest is not just for browsing, but acts as a strong call for action, which often leads to purchasing decisions.
Content from other platforms can easily be added to Pinterest, which enabled large-scale copyright infringement of images and photographs. Pinterest has taken steps to reduce copyright infringement whilst buying on services to support businesses, merchants and other commercial users. Given the nature of the platform, brand owners and rightsholders must carefully evaluate content on Pinterest as infringing commercial activity can be difficult to detect.
The focus of this guide is how-to submit a notice to report counterfeit items being sold or advertised on Pinterest through the “Pinterest trademark complaint form to report counterfeit goods” webform. The reporter must be either the trademark owner or an authorised representative (trademark agent). Pinterest are very responsive to intellectual property infringement notices, typically removing infringing content within 1-2 days of notification. Pinterest does ban platform abusers when accounts are created with sole purpose of promoting counterfeit items. To access the webform to report counterfeits, click here.
Complainant’s information
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The first section of the webform should be completed with the contact details of the reporter, including name, company name, address and email. It is advised to have a specific email account to use for reporting infringements as the email address may be shared with the infringer.
Trademark at issue
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In the first box the reporter must enter all the trademarks “at issue” and then provide other relevant details in the boxes below of the countries the trademarks are registered in and registration numbers. Whilst the registration number box is not mandatory for the submission, it is advisable to complete to help the notice handling process.
Allegedly infringing material
The reporter must then enter the URL of the infringing ‘Pin’. To report a user or entire board the reporter should enter all (or a large sample) or infringing Pins from the user or board and then use the “Additional details” box below to request Pinterest suspends the user or removes the board. Pinterest is very consistent in applying this procedure to accounts with no “substantial non-infringing activity”. Pinterest is optimised for mobile use – if using the app to copy the URL of an infringing Pin the reporter should click the three-dot icon displayed on the top left of the infringing Pin and click “Copy link” or click “Share” and then “Copy link”. Up to 100 items can be reported to Pinterest in a single notice by clicking “Add an additional URL”, which gives the same options as above. As mentioned above, if the reporter wants the user account to be suspended, all the infringing Pins or a large sample of infringing Pins should be provided. Entering the total number of infringing Pins in the additional comments box is also advisable to highlight the scale of infringement.
Statements of authorisation
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There are three checkboxes to tick to complete the submission alongside the reporter entering their name and date to electronically sign the notice. Submitting a notice for intellectual property infringement has serious legal consequences and therefore it is advised to read the statements carefully. By ticking the boxes the reporter agrees the information contained in the notice is accurate, the reporter has good faith belief that the use of the trademark is infringing, the reporter is authorised to submit the notice and a copy of the notice may be sent to the infringer. The date will be automatically inserted when the webform is opened, the final step is for the reporter to type their name into the “Signature” box to electronically sign the notice, then click “Submit” and the intellectual property infringement takedown notice is sent for the Pin to be removed, pending review.