A startup called Operation Bluebird is attempting to create a social media platform using the old ‘Twitter’ branding, which is now known as ‘X’. The name of Twitter was famously changed to X following Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform.
Operation Bluebird plans to call the new site ‘Twitter.new’ and has filed trade mark applications for ‘TWITTER’ and ‘TWEET’ ahead of this. Most recently, it filed a petition to the US Patent and Trade Mark Office which seeks to cancel Elon Musk’s ownership (via his X Corp company) of the trade marks for ‘TWITTER’ and ‘TWEET’ on the basis that they have allegedly been abandoned.
The leaders of Operation Bluebird, one of which was Twitter’s associate director of trade marks, domain names and marketing between the years 2014 to 2016, have said that the new social platform would be safer than Twitter was in that AI fact checking and moderation will be used and would empower users to decide the kind of content they engage with.
In the US, for a trade mark registration to be cancelled for abandonment it must be proven that the owner of the mark has not used it for 3 consecutive years and that the owner has no intention to resume the use of the mark. Whilst this may be true, there also exists residual goodwill in the words ‘TWITTER’ and ‘TWEET’ in that some users still refer to X as Twitter, meaning it can be said that the marks are still associated with X Corp.
It will be interesting to see whether Operation Bluebird succeeds, and if ‘Twitter.new’ is launched. X Corp have until February 2026 to respond to the petition and to decide whether to fight it or allow its cancellation.
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