A startup called Operation Bluebird is trying to reclaim Twitter’s branding, as reported earlier by Ars Technica and Reuters. Last week, Operation Bluebird filed a petition that asks the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel X Corp.’s ownership of the “Twitter” and “Tweet” trademarks, claiming they’ve been “abandoned” by the Elon Musk-owned company.
Operation Bluebird is led by founder Michael Peroff, an Illinois trademark and brand protection attorney, along with Stephen Coates, a trademark attorney who worked as Twitter’s associate director of trademarks, domain names, and marketing from 2014 to 2016. The startup also filed a trademark application for “Twitter,” aiming to include it in a new social media site called Twitter.new.
“We have built a social platform that will look familiar to those that used legacy Twitter, but with new tools that provide a safer experience and empower the user to decide what types of content they engage in,” Coates tells The Verge. A post on Operation Bluebird’s LinkedIn page suggests the startup would use AI for fact-checking and moderation.
In its petition, Operation Bluebird alleges that X has “legally abandoned its rights” to Twitter’s brand “with no intention to resume use.” It also claims that X “continues to commit fraud on the USPTO through the filing of false statements and declarations.” As noted by The National Law Review, US trademark law states that someone looking to cancel a trademark registration for abandonment must prove that its owner hasn’t used the mark for three consecutive years, or show that the owner has discontinued its use and no longer intends to resume it.
After acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk changed the site’s name to “X” and replaced the bird logo in July 2023. Musk also began redirecting Twitter.com traffic to X.com last year. Operation Bluebird’s petition cites a post from Musk, who said “soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds” just before the site’s rebrand.
Alexandra Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University School of Law, tells The Verge that Operation Bluebird has a “solid argument” that X has abandoned the rights to the Twitter marks. But Roberts also brings up something called residual goodwill, or when a trademark “may live on even when the original owner ceases use.” That means people may still associate X Corp. with the Twitter logo and brand.
“Many users continue to refer to X as ‘Twitter’ and posts on X as ‘tweets,’ which demonstrates continued association and strengthens the case for residual goodwill,” Roberts says. She points to a 2020 case where a party attempted to register “Aunt Jemima” for breakfast foods, but was rejected “based on a likelihood of confusion” with Quaker Oats’ Aunt Jemima marks, even though the company had announced earlier that year that it was discontinuing the name and logo.
Intellectual property attorney Douglas Masters says he is doubtful that Operation Bluebird’s claims will be successful. “I don’t know that the record ultimately will show that even though they [X Corp.] switched to X, that they intended to give up all of their commercial use and rights in the word Twitter,” Masters tells The Verge.
X has until February to respond to the petition. If the company chooses to fight it, the process of determining whether or not to cancel X’s ownership of the “Twitter” marks will take a while. “It could take two, three years just to get through the trial process and another couple of years for the trademark office to make a ruling,” Masters says.
The possibility of a lengthy legal battle doesn’t appear to be stopping Operation Bluebird, however. “We believe our position is very strong,” Coates says. “X Corp. could escalate this away from the trademark office and to court, but we are ready to fight.”