Pinterest sued over allegations it 'stole the ideas, concepts and technology'

Pinterest sued over allegations it 'stole the ideas'
Winklevoss take two?

Popular social network Pinterest has been hit with a lawsuit by a man who claims he came up with the ideas that underpin the site.

Theodore F. Schroeder has filed suit claiming that ideas, such as the 'boards' and 'infinite scrolling', which eventually comprised Pinterest were stolen by former business partner Barry Cohen.

He alleges the aforementioned ideas, plus the female-friendly design and colour scheme, were 'linchpin' concepts for a start-up social network called Rendezvoo

Cohen and Shroeder had worked together on the site in 2007/2008. The plaintiff claims that Cohen took those ideas and concepts to Pinterest when he became an early investor in the project.

Baseless

Attourney Richard Scheff, representing Schroeder's told AllThingsD: "The bottom line is that it's illegal to steal an idea for your own benefit without regard to the originator of that idea.

"Here, Mr. Cohen joined an existing enterprise in which Mr Schroeder had a majority interest, and then took without permission or right Mr. Schroeder's ideas, concepts, web application and technology."

A spokesperson for Pinterest called the lawsuit "baseless" and vowed to fight the allegations.

Infamy, Infamy!

This isn't the first (and probably won't be the last) time we've heard such a case.

The infamous Winklevoss twins ended up rich men over their long campaign to assert that Mark Zuckerberg stole their ideas for Facebook.

As AllThingsD's Liz Gannes points out, you're not anyone in the world of social networking until someone has accused you of pinching the idea, so perhaps Pinterest should be flattered?

Via AllThingsD

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.