A social media page that features restaurants and sights in Belfast has had to change its name after being threatened with legal action by Instagram.
Originally named instaBelfast, the account has garnered a large following on Instagram and TikTok, with nearly 40,000 followers between the two platforms and hundreds of thousands of video views.
Company founder Alan Wallace said he was initially shocked by the reaction from the social media giant, but then took the correspondence as a compliment.
“I realized the brand was seriously credited with getting their attention,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
Instagram is an online photo and video sharing networking service owned by Meta, formerly known as Facebook, with annual revenue of US$85.96 billion.
Company legal representation contacted Alan and told him to “promptly cease all use of the instaBelfast trademark, including use in domain names and social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook”.
He was also given “60 days to stop using the INSTABELFAST brand and remove all historical use cases from social media channels, etc.”
Alan said he felt Instagram’s approach was “decent” and has since changed the social media handle @instaBelfast to @inspiringbelfast across all platforms.
“After consulting with a lawyer and finding no positive resolution, instaBelfast had no choice but to rebrand,” the Ballymena native continued.
“I now feel like it’s a blessing in disguise and I’m excited about the future of ‘Inspiring Belfast’.
“We are Belfast’s unofficial travel guide and recently hired for a hugely popular taster job.”
Alan will also be launching a new website under inspiringbelfast.co.uk and hopes to set up an e-commerce store and podcast early next year.
However, he trademarked the ‘iB’ photo logo which remains the brand’s profile picture on social media sites, meaning he will be allowed to keep it.
A similar situation in Northern Ireland also unfolded when a young Ballymoney entrepreneur was forced to rename her ceramics business nine months ago after a year-long legal battle with the fashion and furnishings, Zara.
The global company, which operates more than 2,200 stores in 96 countries, did not like that Ulster University graduate Zara McLaughlin used the name Zara Ceramics, as she claimed the name could be confused with her trademark and therefore infringing copyright laws.
She has since changed her company to Zara McLaughlin Studios.
