In the United States, courts partially satisfied X’s claims in a dispute with Operation Bluebird, which sought to launch a competing social network under the Twitter brand. The startup was reportedly banned from using the name Twitter, but a court found that the Tweet trademark and bird logo were free because X gave up the rights TechCrunch.
Image source: Grok
Operation Bluebird initially launched a project called Twitter.now, but after the court ruling, the site was renamed Tweet.app and can now use the new name. District Court Judge Colm F. Connolly issued a preliminary ruling in X’s lawsuit seeking an injunction against multiple Twitter-related trademarks. However, the decision is not yet final and the proceedings will continue until Company X’s rights to the disputed trademark are fully established following the rebranding.
The court granted X’s motion against eight Twitter-related trademarks but declined to impose similar injunctions on Tweet and the bird logo. The judge considered that Operation Bluebird was likely to be able to prove that X had stopped using the two marks and had no intention of reusing them.
Operation Bluebird is led by Michael Peroff and Stephen Coates, the latter of whom was Twitter’s trademark attorney. Prior to Tweet.app’s launch, more than 172,000 people requested a username on the platform, and the company charged $20 to reserve a username and participate in early testing. Coates said that
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