{"id":27495,"date":"2025-05-09T20:46:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T20:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27495"},"modified":"2025-05-09T21:31:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T21:31:22","slug":"pinterest-agreed-to-settle-christine-martinez-lawsuit-for-34-7-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27495","title":{"rendered":"Pinterest Agreed to Settle Christine Martinez Lawsuit for $34.7 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p id=\"article-summary\" class=\"css-79rysd e1wiw3jv0\">Christine Martinez, who was a friend of two of Pinterest\u2019s three co-founders, sued the company in 2021 for breach of implied contract and other claims.<\/p>\n<section class=\"meteredContent css-1r7ky0e\">\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\" data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pinterest recently agreed to pay $34.7 million to settle a lawsuit from an early adviser who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/13\/technology\/pinterest-lawsuit.html\" title>claimed she had co-created the platform<\/a> without compensation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Christine Martinez, 44, who was a friend of Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra, two of Pinterest\u2019s three co-founders, sued the company in 2021 for breach of implied contract, idea theft, unjust enrichment and unfair business practices. She said she came up with many ideas for the app \u2014 like organizing images on \u201cboards\u201d \u2014 but was never paid for her contributions, despite promises she would be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pinterest, a virtual pinboard company that has many female users, disclosed the settlement with Ms. Martinez in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net\/CIK-0001506293\/e36b036f-2578-4c90-a385-3d04edfde1b3.pdf\" title rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">November 2024 financial filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNo one wants to find themselves in the litigation process, and I\u2019m just really, really excited and frankly just relieved to be past it,\u201d Ms. Martinez said in an interview on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"Dropzone-1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\" data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMs. Martinez provided beneficial marketing and community growth input and strategies during the early phase of Pinterest\u2019s founding,\u201d according to a statement that was part of the settlement, which was provided by Ms. Martinez. \u201cThe parties are pleased to amicably resolve this legacy matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pinterest declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The settlement follows a series of complaints and legal disputes against Pinterest by some of its female employees and executives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2020, Pinterest paid $22.5 million to settle <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/12\/14\/technology\/pinterest-gender-discrimination-lawsuit.html\" title>a gender discrimination suit<\/a> filed by Fran\u00e7oise Brougher, its former chief operating officer, who said she was fired after experiencing sexist treatment at the company. That same year, more than 200 employees signed a petition <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/14\/technology\/pinterest-walkout-equality.html\" title>demanding the company change its policies<\/a> after three former workers accused Pinterest of racial and sex discrimination and retaliation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Silbermann, who was Pinterest\u2019s chief executive, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/28\/business\/pinterest-ben-silbermann.html\" title>left that role<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Martinez, who had a background in e-commerce and interior design, claimed in her lawsuit that Mr. Silbermann and Mr. Sciarra sought her advice for the company that became Pinterest a year before it was founded in 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She said she came up with the idea for the picture boards and the platform\u2019s signature \u201cPin it\u201d phrase, and also helped persuade top design and lifestyle bloggers to use and promote the site. A portion of Pinterest\u2019s programming code was named after her in homage, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"Dropzone-3\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn\" data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She never signed a formal contract with Pinterest, but it was implied she would eventually be compensated, she said. Pinterest went public in 2019 and has a market capitalization of more than $18 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Martinez is now a board member and strategic adviser for <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jingo.app\/\" title rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Jingo<\/a>, an online A.I. shopping platform that caters to women.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"RelatedLinksBlock-5\">\n<div data-testid=\"lazy-loader\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christine Martinez, who was a friend of two of Pinterest\u2019s three co-founders, sued the company in 2021 for breach of implied contract and other claims.Pinterest recently agreed to pay $34.7 million to settle a lawsuit from an early adviser who claimed she had co-created the platform without compensation.Christine Martinez, 44, who was a friend of Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra, two of Pinterest\u2019s three co-founders, sued the company in 2021 for breach of implied contract, idea theft, unjust enrichment and unfair business practices. She said she came up with many ideas for the app \u2014 like organizing images on \u201cboards\u201d \u2014 but was never paid for her contributions, despite promises she would be.Pinterest, a virtual pinboard company that has many female users, disclosed the settlement with Ms. Martinez in a November 2024 financial filing.\u201cNo one wants to find themselves in the litigation process, and I\u2019m just really, really excited and frankly just relieved to be past it,\u201d Ms. Martinez said in an interview on Friday.\u201cMs. Martinez provided beneficial marketing and community growth input and strategies during the early phase of Pinterest\u2019s founding,\u201d according to a statement that was part of the settlement, which was provided by Ms. Martinez. \u201cThe parties are pleased to amicably resolve this legacy matter.\u201dPinterest declined to comment.The settlement follows a series of complaints and legal disputes against Pinterest by some of its female employees and executives.In 2020, Pinterest paid $22.5 million to settle a gender discrimination suit filed by Fran\u00e7oise Brougher, its former chief operating officer, who said she was fired after experiencing sexist treatment at the company. That same year, more than 200 employees signed a petition demanding the company change its policies after three former workers accused Pinterest of racial and sex discrimination and retaliation.Mr. Silbermann, who was Pinterest\u2019s chief executive, left that role in 2022.Ms. Martinez, who had a background in e-commerce and interior design, claimed in her lawsuit that Mr. Silbermann and Mr. Sciarra sought her advice for the company that became Pinterest a year before it was founded in 2010.She said she came up with the idea for the picture boards and the platform\u2019s signature \u201cPin it\u201d phrase, and also helped persuade top design and lifestyle bloggers to use and promote the site. A portion of Pinterest\u2019s programming code was named after her in homage, according to the lawsuit.She never signed a formal contract with Pinterest, but it was implied she would eventually be compensated, she said. Pinterest went public in 2019 and has a market capitalization of more than $18 billion.Ms. Martinez is now a board member and strategic adviser for Jingo, an online A.I. shopping platform that caters to women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27497,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27498,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495\/revisions\/27498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}