US: Pixels.com names counsel in Instagram suit

On Thursday Pixels.com, sued Instagram in federal court in San Francisco asking the court to find that the Instaprints trademark does not infringe the Instagram trademark and to award damages and attorneys’ fees as a result of Instagram’s unlawful use of its trademark in violation of antitrust laws.

In June 2012, when Pixels.com adopted the Instaprints mark, Instagram was a company with fewer than 20 employees that encouraged developers to use its platform to create and market applications that would drive traffic to the small start-up. Pixels asserts that it relied on Instagram’s terms of use in place in 2012 when it adopted its Instaprints mark, which is used with online print-on-demand services, and maintains that its mark is not confusingly similar to Instagram.

Instagram changed its terms of use the year after Facebook purchased the company for $1 billion in December 2012, and then began pursuing dozens of users of marks that include INSTA or GRAM, according to the complaint.

As a result, Pixels.com claims that Instagram has acted in bad faith in trying to thwart trademark applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. According to the complaint, Instagram’s formal efforts to block registration have been accompanied by Instagram attorneys’ demands that dozens of small businesses abandon their business names and rebrand.

Pixels.com is represented by Amy Sullivan Cahill and Mari-Elise Taube of Stites & Harbison, PLLC. Cobalt LLP of San Francisco is serving as local counsel.

Full content: Mondaq

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