Before you dismiss this piece of legal news, consider the possibilities. It’s not an extraordinary event, as Instagram has already trademarked its own app name. But now it’s moving to protect the moniker ‘Gram’ in the EU. The plot thickens.
You see, trademarking is quite common in the industry, as companies want to preserve their name and possible abusive usages from replica apps or services.
Instagram has already filed to trademark the word ‘Insta’, to prevent third party apps from using it as part of their branding. However, it has yet to gain an approved status, which would mean that Instagram would have the grounds to legally press apps to change their name.
If both trademark fillings are successful, a lot of popular apps could see an imminent demise – or radical change in their branding. For instance, Flipagram (which has already trademarked its name in countries outside the EU) could be up for the change.
It’s totally understandable for Instagram (or Flipagram) to protect their names from being used by other apps and services. However, in this case, this could be disruptive for the industry, as smaller players would have to adopt different names across their globe, which could possibly stall their growth.
Advantage Instagram.
