Each new social media service that crosses the threshold of public awareness sees two things: brands and celebrities rushing in to find out if they can use the service to their advantage and, right before that, squatters and jokers who got to the brand name first. The latest to experience this Wild West phenomenon is the visual bulletin board service, Pinterest, which recently announced a brief policy statement on usernames that hardly clears things up for companies, celebrities, and satirists alike.

Is this Michelle Obama? Unlikely, with her "Eat As I Say Not As I Eat" section, in which she pins pictures of "Places where I've consumed incredible amounts of calories while campaigning for America to eat healthier." This is clearly not Beyoncé (check the url). Nor are these boards run by FourSquare or Tiffany, nor does this Pinterest board have anything to do with Starbucks, as most people know it (again, the Pin Board header doesn't reveal any impersonation, but the Pinterest-provided domain name may prove valuable to the owners).

Brands and celebrities have an invested interest in maintaining the public perception of their names. Erosion of that image damages their ability to make money in the long run, and some companies are required to maintain a vigilance over their names to retain a functioning copyright.

The most popular social networking sites have already come face-to-face with the reality that early adopters will claim names, identities, and brands that may not truly belong to them. But the way each site deals with instances that could involve accusations of libel, bartering user names for money, or other unsanctioned uses of social networking property, has varied. Twitter uses the Verified account to denote celebrities, and allows parody accounts but will shut down impersonating accounts. Facebook requires real names with some narrow exceptions. Google+ originally required real names, but now will support pseudonyms, and also verifies celebrities' accounts.

But Pinterest seems to still be coming to terms with the issue, even as its popularity grows.

The most famous instance of Pinterest misnaming is Mitt Romney. His campaign pursued the shutdown of a fake (though pretty clearly satirical) account using his name.

Eric Spiegelman, the site's erstwhile owner stated his concern on his blog that "the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for President asked (Pinterest) to dilute criticism about him" and they did. This is going to be one of Pinterest's PR challenges as things go forward—the accusation that they are acting in favor of powerful interests rather than their rank and file users. Pinterest did change the site, reassigning it to the Romney campaign and forcing the parody over to Fake Mitt Romney.

Pinterest recently posted an exceedingly brief statement of policy on "Trademark Infringement & Usernames."

"Pinterest respects the trademark rights of others. Accounts with usernames, Pin Board names, or any other content that misleads others or violates another’s trademark may be updated, transferred or permanently suspended."

Those who feel their usernames have been affected can register a complaint via Pinterest's Trademark Complaint Form. Exactly what Pinterest will do remains vague. The company's public relations firm, when asked about the exact process of investigating a complaint, simply directed Ars back to the following statement on their Trademark page.

"Pinterest will review your submission and take whatever action, in its sole discretion, it deems appropriate, including temporary or permanent removal of the trademark from the Pinterest site."

Pinterest may indeed prove responsive—there have been few examples of people and companies agitating for a change on the site yet—and users may get used to whatever accomodations they need to make to take the advantage of the tool. Until then, users will have to trust that "whatever action" Pinterest takes will be sufficient to their needs.