Partial Victory in Trademark Battle with Musk’s X: Startup Brings Back ‘Tweet’ Name

Staff Report: PNN

Startup Operation Bluebird, which is working to launch a new social media platform, has achieved partial success in its legal trademark battle with X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.

A federal court in the US state of Delaware sided with X regarding the use of the name ‘Twitter’, but made important observations supporting the startup’s claims concerning the word ‘Tweet’ and Twitter’s bird logo.

Following the court’s decision, Operation Bluebird renamed its website Tweet.app. The platform has also been launched experimentally for general users.

The startup had previously launched under the name ‘Twitter.now’. However, the court prohibited the use of that name. Although the court issued a preliminary injunction concerning eight Twitter-related trademarks claimed by X, it rejected X’s request concerning the ‘Tweet’ trademark and Twitter’s bird logo.

In his observations, Judge Colm F. Connolly said Operation Bluebird would likely be able to prove that X had discontinued the genuine commercial use of the name ‘Tweet’ and the bird logo and had no intention of using them again in the future.

After Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he changed the platform’s name to X. Alongside the rebranding, the company gradually moved away from its long-standing ‘Twitter’ and ‘tweet’ names as well as its blue bird symbol.

Operation Bluebird’s entire initiative is essentially centred on an attempt to establish rights over these abandoned trademarks.

The Virginia-based startup is led by two lawyers. One is founder Michael Perff, while the other is Stephen Coates, who previously worked as a trademark lawyer at Twitter.

Although the startup says its goal is to build a new social media platform, a significant part of its activities revolves around the abandoned trademarks associated with the former Twitter brand.

The company’s website also highlights its intention to recover the names and symbols that were discarded during Musk’s rebranding of the platform.

Before the launch of Tweet.app, the company said more than 172,000 people had applied to claim specific usernames or handles on the platform. Users’ continued interest in the old ‘Twitter’ brand is believed to have played a major role in this demand.

However, users are required to pay $20 to reserve a handle in order to join the platform. The startup’s fee is believed to be helping cover its initial operating expenses as well as the costs of its legal battle.

The current ruling by the Delaware court is not final. It is a divided decision issued in response to X’s request for a preliminary injunction.

As a result, whether X will ultimately retain rights over the Twitter-related trademarks will be determined through subsequent legal proceedings.

Operation Bluebird President Stephen Coates claimed that although X had retained the name ‘Twitter’, it had abandoned the word ‘tweet’ and the bird symbol.

He argued that ‘tweet’ is not the exclusive property of any particular company; rather, it is a common word used by people to express themselves, and it has continued to be used by the general public even after Twitter changed its name.

Meanwhile, the extent to which Operation Bluebird will be able to independently use the ‘Tweet’ brand and how much control X will ultimately be able to retain over these trademarks will depend on the court’s subsequent decisions.