Trademark rights abandoned? X takes up fight for "Twitter" and "Tweet"
A start-up asked the US Patent Office to take away X's trademark rights to “Twitter” and “Tweet.” The microblogging service wants to prevent this and is suing.
(Image: kovop58/Shutterstock.com)
Just days after the US Patent Office was asked to revoke all rights to the trademark “Twitter” and the term “Tweet,” the microblogging service X has changed its terms of use to reintroduce its former name and file a lawsuit. This is evident from the document filed with the court, which several US media outlets have made public. It speaks of a “brazen” attempt to “steal the world-famous Twitter brand.” Both brands, as well as the blue bird logo, are “valid, existing, and incontestable intellectual property” of X, the internet company assures the court in the US state of Delaware. The actions of the company “Operation Bluebird” are unlawful.
Still millions of accesses to twitter.com
The lawsuit states, among other things, that more than four million people still access X via the URL twitter.com every day, the microblogging service is still called “Twitter” around the world, and posts there are called “Tweets.” However, since X has so far removed all references to both terms from its platform, it appeared as if this was not in the interest of those responsible. Apparently, to counter this impression and to support the lawsuit, the terms of use of X were changed so that the rights to both terms lie with X. Previously, they were no longer even mentioned in the extensive document. Now it states that the redesign of the website and app does not mean the abandonment of trademark rights.
The background to the now reasserted ownership claims to the “Twitter” brand is the plan by “Operation Bluebird” to launch a “new Twitter.” Under “twitter.new,” those responsible want to launch a new “public marketplace.” For this purpose, they have asked the patent office to take away X's trademark rights because Elon Musk's company “has no intention of resuming the use of the trademarks.” The approach was indeed considered to have a chance of success because X has apparently ceased to use the trademarks. It was unclear whether Musk even wanted to defend the trademark rights. At least this question has now been answered.
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Musk took over Twitter in the fall of 2022 for 44 billion US dollars after some back and forth. Chaotic weeks and months followed on the social network, which was subsequently repeatedly abandoned by particularly active users in favor of numerous alternatives. Nevertheless, it took over two years until Threads from Meta, one of them, reached the user numbers of the now renamed social network. Meanwhile, there are constant calls to turn your back on the social network, also because of Elon Musk's behavior, for example, at the beginning of the year from the Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination. heise online has not been active there for a year.
(mho)
