Pinterest has a total of 90 patents globally, out of which 63 have been granted. Of these 90 patents, more than 86% patents are active. United States of America is where Pinterest has filed the maximum number of patents, followed by Japan and Europe, it has generated an annual revenue of $1.6 billion in the year 2020. Parallelly, USA seems to be the main focused R&D centre.
Pinterest, created in 2010, is an image sharing and social media service that uses pinboards to allow users to save and find content (particularly “ideas”) on the internet using photos, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos. Based in San Fransisco, USA, it had over 478 million global monthly active users as of March 2021. As of February 2022, Pinterest has a market cap of $17.63 Billion.
Do read about some of the most popular patents of Pinterest which have been covered by us in this article and also you can find Pinterest’s patents information, the worldwide patent filing activity and its patent filing trend over the years, and many other stats over Pinterest’s patent portfolio.
How many patents does the founder and CEO of Pinterest have?
The founders Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra have 1, 0 and 0 patents respectively. The CEO, Ben Silbermann, has 1 patent.
How many patents does Pinterest have?
Pinterest has a total of 90 patents globally. These patents belong to 90 unique patent families. Out of 90 patents, 78 patents are active.
How many Pinterest patents are Alive/Dead?
Worldwide Patents

Patent Families

How Many Patents did Pinterest File Every Year?

Are you wondering why there is a drop in patent filing for the last two years? It is because a patent application can take up to 18 months to get published. Certainly, it doesn’t suggest a decrease in the patent filing.
Year of Patents Filing or Grant | Pinterest Applications Filed | Pinterest Patents Granted |
2011 | 1 | 5 |
2012 | 2 | 4 |
2013 | 6 | 4 |
2014 | 4 | 2 |
2015 | 5 | 3 |
2016 | 6 | 1 |
2017 | 16 | 4 |
2018 | 9 | 3 |
2019 | 8 | 7 |
2020 | 3 | 8 |
2021 | 7 | 11 |
2022 | – | 6 |
How Many Patents did Pinterest File in Different Countries?

Countries in which Pinterest Filed Patents
Country | Patents |
United States Of America | 81 |
Japan | 4 |
Europe | 2 |
Mexico | 1 |
Where are Research Centres of Pinterest Patents Located?

10 Best Pinterest Patents
US7257546B2 is the most popular patent in the Pinterest portfolio. It has received 94 citations so far from companies like Miva, Microsoft and Goggle.
Below is the list of 10 most cited patents of PINTEREST:
Publication Number | Count of Citing Patents |
US7257546B2 | 94 |
US7647314B2 | 49 |
US7848764B2 | 17 |
US7574651B2 | 16 |
US20160055256A1 | 14 |
US8700462B2 | 14 |
US8599203B2 | 12 |
US9176668B2 | 10 |
US8255390B2 | 9 |
US20140229882A1 | 8 |
Which Companies are using Pinterest Patents to Advance their Research?
If patents or patents from a particular technology area of a company receive a lot of citations, it implies that the technology is being followed and incrementally innovated by the citing companies. It also indicates that citing companies are working on similar and closely related technologies.
The top citing companies in the Pinterest patent portfolio are Microsoft, Google and IBM.
List of the top forward citing Companies –
Company | Number of Patents |
Microsoft | 21 |
13 | |
IBM | 7 |
Nintendo | 6 |
Samsung | 4 |
Mediamath | 3 |
Excalibur | 3 |
Intent Global | 3 |
Adroit | 3 |
BigML | 2 |
Count of 102 and 103 Type Rejections based on Pinterest Patents

Top Pinterest Patents used in Rejecting Most Patent Applications
Patent Number | Count of Rejected Applications |
US8566160B2 | 15 |
US8599203B2 | 13 |
US7647314B2 | 12 |
US9176668B2 | 12 |
US8700462B2 | 10 |
US8989727B2 | 9 |
US7257546B2 | 7 |
US8255390B2 | 7 |
US10282425B2 | 6 |
US9594835B2 | 5 |
US7848764B2 | 3 |
US8326815B2 | 3 |
US8577134B2 | 3 |
US9773249B2 | 3 |
US20190095465A1 | 2 |
What Percentage of Pinterest US Patent Applications were Granted?
Pinterest (Excluding its subsidiaries) has filed 127 patent applications at USPTO so far (Excluding Design and PCT applications). Out of these 103 have been granted leading to a grant rate of 97.17%.
Below are the key stats of Pinterest patent prosecution at the USPTO.

Which Law Firms Filed Most US Patents for Pinterest?
Law Firms | Total Applications | Success Rate |
Pinterest, Inc. | 127 | 97.17% |
Excalibur Ip, Llc | 62 | 96.72% |
Yahoo! Inc. | 62 | 96.72% |
Acacia Research Group Llc | 56 | 100.00% |
American Vehicular Sciences Llc | 56 | 100.00% |
Bonutti Skeletal Innovations Llc | 56 | 100.00% |
Cellular Communications Equipment Llc | 56 | 100.00% |
Innovative Display Technologies Llc | 56 | 100.00% |
Lifeport Sciences Llc | 56 | 100.00% |
Limestone Memory Systems Llc | 56 | 100.00% |
Patents acquired by Pinterest
Pinterest has acquired 32 patents from other companies which are not associated with Pinterest.
Company | Patent Families |
YAHOO! | 32 |
List of acquired patents by Pinterest
Pinterest Patents | Title | Patent Acquired From |
US10282425B2 | Identifying popular segments of media objects | YAHOO! |
US10026104B2 | Method and system for automatically pausing advertisements based on user attention | YAHOO! |
US20180095980A1 | Method and system for displaying content relating to a subject matter of a displayed media program | YAHOO! |
US9900277B2 | Context sensitive user group communications | YAHOO! |
US9773249B2 | Method and system for presenting targeted advertisements | YAHOO! |
US9736216B2 | Media toolbar and aggregated/distributed media ecosystem | YAHOO! |
US9594835B2 | Lightning search aggregate | YAHOO! |
US9535938B2 | Efficient and fault-tolerant distributed algorithm for learning latent factor models through matrix factorization | YAHOO! |
US20160283604A1 | System and method for searching a bookmark and tag database for relevant bookmarks | YAHOO! |
US9424349B2 | Restoring program information for clips of broadcast programs shared online | YAHOO! |
US8989727B2 | System and method for proximity area networking for mobile gaming | YAHOO! |
US8886627B2 | Inverse search systems and methods | YAHOO! |
US8700462B2 | System and method for optimizing advertisement campaigns using a limited budget | YAHOO! |
US8595097B2 | Automatic ad group creation in a networked advertising environment | YAHOO! |
US8577134B2 | Method and system of facilitating search by color | YAHOO! |
US8566160B2 | Determining placement of advertisements on web pages | YAHOO! |
US8326815B2 | Session based click features for recency ranking | YAHOO! |
US8296305B2 | Rules and method for improving image search relevance through games | YAHOO! |
US8280871B2 | Identifying offensive content using user click data | YAHOO! |
US8255390B2 | Session based click features for recency ranking | YAHOO! |
US8046436B2 | System and method of providing context information for client application data stored on the web | YAHOO! |
US8046438B2 | System and method of restoring data and context of client applications stored on the web | YAHOO! |
US8046437B2 | System and method of storing data and context of client application on the web | YAHOO! |
US8041781B2 | System and method for providing web system services for storing data and context of client applications on the web | YAHOO! |
US7996779B2 | System and method of providing a user interface for client applications to store data and context information on the web | YAHOO! |
US7848764B2 | System for providing location predictive advertising | YAHOO! |
US7647314B2 | System and method for indexing web content using click-through features | YAHOO! |
US7574651B2 | Value system for dynamic composition of pages | YAHOO! |
US7359952B2 | Content delivery frequency capping method | YAHOO! |
US7257546B2 | System and method for correlating user data from a content provider and user data from an advertising provider that is stored on autonomous systems | YAHOO! |
EP2033455B1 | Providing an actionable event in an intercepted text message for a mobile device based on customized user information | YAHOO! |
It is a one-of-a-kind social site that Pinterest’s creators describe the service as a “library of ideas” that motivates users to “go out and do that thing,” despite the fact that it is not a “social network” based on images. It has a sizable fashion following as well. Pinterest was later dubbed a “visual search engine” in the future.
Pinterest appears to be working hard to differentiate itself from the competition by giving sponsored, cinematic, and buyable pins. The first major update to Pinterest is the long-awaited option for all brands to promote their pins by investing in advertising. Pinterest, like Facebook and, more lately, Twitter, has offered advertisers with an analytics dashboard to track the performance of Promoted Pins in greater depth. Impressions, repins, clicks, average CTR (Click Through Rate), average CPC (Cost Per Click), and total cost are all included.
The cinematic pin is a second Pinterest offering that is causing a stir in the advertising industry. Unlike standard video ads, which begin when you stop scrolling and end when you browse away, cinematic pins work the other way around. These pins are observed moving when the user scrolls, and then they stop moving once the scrolling stops. The above-mentioned enhanced targeting capabilities of Pinterest can then be used to further target them.
Pinterest has introduced Pinterest TV, a new live video feature on the site where top creators have started producing shoppable films taking their followers through beauty routines and holiday cocktail recipes. It’s the company’s attempt to compete with YouTube and, in particular, TikTok, both of which have been shown to drive sales from Gen Z.
Pinterest is a relevant platform for marketers, and these new upgrades only add to its value and boost businesses’ faith in the site’s ability to reach customers in the most natural and targeted way possible.
EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS COMING SOON!
What are Pinterest’s key innovation segments?
What Technologies are Covered by Pinterest?

The chart below distributes patents filed by Pinterest in different countries on the basis of the technology protected in patents. It also represents the markets where Pinterest thinks it’s important to protect particular technology inventions.

R&D Focus: How Pinterest search focus changed over the years?

EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS COMING SOON!
Interested in knowing about the areas of innovation that are being protected by Pinterest?