Instagram Updates Brand Guidelines
If you’ve ever taken the time to install Instagram on an iOS device, you know that the app store is riddled with third-party Instagram apps, most of which include “Insta” or “Gram” in the name. However, recently, Instagram has updated its brand guidelines, no longer allowing these apps to take advantage of the company’s famous label.
Along with this update to their guidelines, Instagram has begun contacting app developers directly, requesting they change their name. This email below was sent to the team behind Luxogram, an app which is currently in Beta:
We appreciate your interest in developing products that help people share with Instagram. While we encourage developers to build great apps with Instagram, we cannot allow other applications to look like they might be official Instagram applications or endorsed or sponsored by us. As we hope you can appreciate, protection of its well-known trademarks is very important to Instagram. For example, it has always been against our guidelines to use a name that sounds or looks like “Instagram” or copies the look and feel of our application. Similarly, as we have clarified in the new guidelines, use of “INSTA” and “GRAM” for an application that works with Instagram is harmful to the Instagram brand. It is important that you develop your own distinctive branding for your applications, and use Instagram’s trademarks only as specifically authorized under our policies.
While this is not nearly as bad as Twitter trying to shut down all third party apps, it might set some companies back that have already developed a brand. Then again, it makes sense that Instagram wants to protect its trademark. Source