Start up PinClout launched roughly a week back, and its name seemed to make the company's mission clear to measure influence on quickly growing Pinterest. And there has been positive interest, with some tech press coverage and what co-founder Chris Fay recounted is an average of two thousand to 3,000 unique visitors every day. ( Incredibly, it's not the sole "Klout for Pinterest." ) But the company just received a letter from Klout's attorney asking it to "immediately desist from all use of or plans to utilize the PINCLOUT mark and the www.pinclout.com domain name."
The letter argues that PinClout's name is "confusingly similar" to Klout for several reasons : The similarity between the words, the similarity between the services, the proven fact that they are directed at similar customers, and the similar selling channels.
PinClout founder Chris Fay said that he was "really surprised" to get the letter. He argued that despite the negligible likenesses, PinClout has different aims from Klout yes, it gives a score between 1 and a hundred to rate a user's influence, but he announced the genuine aim is to provide analytics tools to businesses so they can increase that influence : "It's not really about the score itself."
However, Fay recounted that on the advice of PinClout's counsel, the company will be changing its name instead of getting embroiled in a long and costly legal fight. The new name is continuing to be decided. ( I illuminated that if his target was to create something that is not just Klout for Pinterest, changing the name may not be a very bad idea, and Fay agreed : "We can use this to show that we are dissimilar from them." )
I called a Klout spokesperson, who told me the company welcomes new entries into a market they invented but also feels it's crucial to avoid confusion and "protect the brand" for themselves and for partners.
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