Joshua Gunning
@joshua_gunning · CEO, Pinguin
@sebyddd @perte What was it that Jobs' had said, "Good artists copy; great artists steal"? I can assure you this is not one of those moments. We spent weeks meticulously deconstructing names and sketching proposed logos. At one point in time, we nearly called the company "Lime" standing for leave important messages everywhere. However, after much hot debate and 100s of deeply searched Google queries, we landed on Pinguin (as Bryan has suggested). I can assure you personally as the person who created the logo that I have never seen the "Pengin" app nor logo. We believed so much in the logo and that we had a true original that we spent our own time, money, and effort combing through USPTO just to confirm and finally submitted our request to trademark. We were approved, however, that wasn't the end. We had to stand up against Penguin Publishers and Ping Golf and prove our uniqueness. Trust me, this wasn't easy work. We didn't have the capital to hire a TM attorney and fight it ourselves so we had to basically learn at least on a surface level enough TM law to hold our own (because we believe in the logo that much) and we did. I understand you may be upset and still believe we stole your idea and logo, but let's be super serious, this idea of interest based conversation and even localized conversation isn't original and isn't your idea nor even ours. It stems back to even pre-date AIM by AOL. So, as Bryan said, I'm fairly confident that this is a mere coincidence that our logos have a similar look. But we've done everything to be sure we were in the right here such as holding the trademark in the US for both the name and logo. Below is a 50,000ft level view of our progression, the details are all documented:
Despite everything, I feel as those you might have some knowledge that could be helpful. I'd love to open some dialogue between us and get your feedback on the space, the god and the bad. Perhaps your feedback will help us avoid any major pitfalls and in return, I'm happy to help you in any way we can. Look forward to connecting!
Despite everything, I feel as those you might have some knowledge that could be helpful. I'd love to open some dialogue between us and get your feedback on the space, the god and the bad. Perhaps your feedback will help us avoid any major pitfalls and in return, I'm happy to help you in any way we can. Look forward to connecting! 10sharetweet・
Joshua Gunning
@joshua_gunning · CEO, Pinguin
@chrismessina @nivo0o0 Hi guys! Is the only way to get a comment to the top of your feed to get more upvotes than the top comment? We're being called out on an assumption and as the saying goes, perception over reality. Is there a way to pin a comment to the top?
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Sebastian Dobrincu
@sebyddd · Co-Founder of Storyheap. 🔑
@joshua_gunning @perte As I said, I am not accusing you of copying. Might simply be a huge coincidence. It's just very weird how all the details seemed so similar, the product, the logo, the name. I received a sketchy email earlier, which I'd rather discuss in private– I don't want to hurt your image and that was never my intention. I am honestly rooting hard for you guys and wish you all the best!
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Chris Messina
@chrismessina · 🏆 PH Community Member of the Year!
@joshua_gunning @nivo0o0 gotta get the upvotes AFAIK...
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Joshua Gunning
@joshua_gunning · CEO, Pinguin
@sebyddd @perte I'm happy to publicly discuss anything, we have nothing to hide and have really busted our asses to build this product. Every day, UI elements are mimicked and sometimes blatantly copied (FB/IG with Snapchat stories as the most notable and recent). I'm not sure who thinks we stole their idea/product or anything else for that matter but it's simply and utterly false.
Regardless of all this, I'd like to say we're conversation based not meet up based and even both of those ideas stem back before we both knew how to use computers (assuming you're close to my age). Thank you for your feedback and good luck wishes. We're going to keep pushing forward as hard as we can - #keeponkeepingon
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Sebastian Dobrincu
@sebyddd · Co-Founder of Storyheap. 🔑
@joshua_gunning 👍
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