US startup seeks to reclaim Twitter trademarks 'abandoned' by Musk's X

A fledgling social media platform has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel trademarks for Twitter so it can take them for itself, contending that billionaire Elon Musk's X Corp has abandoned them.

The Virginia-based startup, Operation Bluebird, said in its 2 December petition that it wants to be allowed to use "Twitter" and "tweet" for a rival social media platform called "twitter.new." It also filed an application to trademark "Twitter."

The petition was filed by Stephen Coates, a former trademark lawyer at Twitter who now serves as Operation Bluebird's general counsel and runs a small law firm.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and rebranded the site to X. Operation Bluebird's filings contend that X has "eradicated" the Twitter brand from its products, services and marketing.

Musk in 2023 said in a post on X that the company would "bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds."

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Coates in a statement called the matter "straightforward" after X allegedly stopped using the Twitter trademark commercially.

"X legally abandoned the TWITTER mark," Coates said.

The rebranded X does not feature Twitter's famous blue bird logo, and the platform has migrated from twitter.com to x.com. X Corp's 2023 renewal registration for the Twitter trademark was approved last year.

Josh Gerben, an intellectual property lawyer who is not involved in the dispute, said X would face obstacles defending its ownership of the trademarks if the company no longer uses them. But he said X could try to block Operation Bluebird's commercial use of the Twitter name even if the cancellation is successful.

Gerben called Operation Bluebird's challenge "an interesting test as to whether or not X will invest in protecting a brand that they no longer want to use."