Pinterest Named Michael Yang Its General Counsel
21 August 2012
Tech startup Pinterest, which has come under fire for alleged copyright violations, has named Michael Yang, a deputy general counsel at Google, as its general counsel. In May, Pinterest raised US$100 million in a financing round that valued the company at US$1.5 billion. Yang previously worked in the
California State Senate and the US Congress.
The company has faced questions over copyright issues, as it allows users to “pin” photos and other content to their online scrapbooks without obtaining licenses from the content owner. A Pinterest spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that hiring an in-house counsel was “standard legal fare” and not as a reaction to the site’s potential copyright and trademark problems.
