A Virginia tech startup is pushing into rare legal territory, arguing that one of Silicon Valley’s most recognizable brand names has been left sitting on the shelf long enough for someone else to claim it.
According to Reuters, Operation Bluebird, a fledgling social media company, has asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Twitter’s long-held trademarks so it can adopt them for its own competing platform, “twitter.new.” In a petition filed December 2, the company said it wants permission to use both “Twitter” and “tweet” and has separately applied to trademark the name “Twitter” itself.
The challenge arrives more than a year after Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and rebranded it as X, initiating a sweeping purge of the company’s legacy identity. Operation Bluebird argues in its filings that X has “eradicated” the Twitter brand from its products, services and marketing. Musk appeared to confirm that shift in 2023 when he posted that the platform would “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
The petition was filed by Stephen Coates, a former trademark lawyer at Twitter who now serves as Operation Bluebird’s general counsel. Coates called the issue “straightforward,” saying, “X legally abandoned the TWITTER mark.”
X no longer features the iconic blue bird logo and has redirected users from twitter.com to x.com. Still, X Corp’s 2023 renewal registration for the Twitter trademark was approved last year.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who is not involved in the case, said X could face challenges defending ownership if it is no longer using the marks, but noted the company may still try to block Operation Bluebird’s commercial plans. Gerben called the petition “an interesting test as to whether or not X will invest in protecting a brand that they no longer want to use.”
