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Former Twitter Attorney Files for 'Twitter' Trademark

47 points by edent 10mo ago

ChrisArchitect 10mo ago
Related Reuters post: https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-startup-seeks-reclaim-twitter-trademarks-abandoned-by-musks-x-2025-12-08/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-startup-seeks-reclaim-... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203468)
mrgoldenbrown 10mo ago
Musk has spent plenty of money on whims, perceived insult or for the LOLs before. If he doesn't like this, he could easily spend some cash to "use" the twitter marks for the smallest possible value of "use" that meets the legal standard.
Cpoll 10mo ago
> The only remaining use is that Twitter.com now forwards to X.com, which by itself is generally not enough to constitute ongoing trademark use. I wonder if X's lawyers can argue that the millions of Twitter-branded share buttons and links all over the internet count.
- rogerrogerr 10mo ago
  Or all the people who still call it Twitter as an ineffectual act of protest.
  - hallole 10mo ago
    I hope people aren't reading it as silly protesting when I say "Twitter" or "tweet," I just think it sounds way better.
  - refulgentis 10mo ago
    I hope people aren't reading it as silly protesting just because I'm getting old (37) and have 15+ years of neural pathways of daily use of the site to nuke. "tweeted" -> "posted on X.com" is really hard.
    - wormius 10mo ago
      I think it's: "tweeted" -> "xited" pronounced "shitted"
  - LocalH 10mo ago
    Not a trademark lawyer, but I wonder if that can actually result in implications of genericization.
    - Cpoll 10mo ago
      It's not genericization in this case, people only call X "Twitter," not all text-based short form social media.
      - rapnie 10mo ago
        I hear people on Mastodon, who undoubtedly came from X, talk about 'tweeting a Mastodon post' instead of posting or 'tooting'.
fwipsy 10mo ago
There's no way this will actually be allowed. Musk is petty, has deep pockets, and giving up the trademark also means losing Twitter.com and all the links to it. This filing must be a publicity stunt.
- AlexAplin 10mo ago
  For what it is worth, they have communicated that they do eventually plan to retire the domain themselves [1]: >Re-enrolling your security key will associate them with x[.]com, allowing us to retire the Twitter domain. [1] https://xcancel.com/Safety/status/1982278858457174522 https://xcancel.com/Safety/status/1982278858457174522
andreygrehov 10mo ago
[flagged]
iancmceachern 10mo ago
They famously lost the trademark to "Talkboy" and someone snagged it up recently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkboy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkboy

47 points by edent 10mo ago

Related Reuters post: https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-startup-seeks-reclaim-twitter-trademarks-abandoned-by-musks-x-2025-12-08/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-startup-seeks-reclaim-... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203468)

mrgoldenbrown 10mo ago

Musk has spent plenty of money on whims, perceived insult or for the LOLs before. If he doesn't like this, he could easily spend some cash to "use" the twitter marks for the smallest possible value of "use" that meets the legal standard.

Cpoll 10mo ago

> The only remaining use is that Twitter.com now forwards to X.com, which by itself is generally not enough to constitute ongoing trademark use. I wonder if X's lawyers can argue that the millions of Twitter-branded share buttons and links all over the internet count.

rogerrogerr 10mo ago
Or all the people who still call it Twitter as an ineffectual act of protest.
- hallole 10mo ago
  I hope people aren't reading it as silly protesting when I say "Twitter" or "tweet," I just think it sounds way better.
- refulgentis 10mo ago
  I hope people aren't reading it as silly protesting just because I'm getting old (37) and have 15+ years of neural pathways of daily use of the site to nuke. "tweeted" -> "posted on X.com" is really hard.
  - wormius 10mo ago
    I think it's: "tweeted" -> "xited" pronounced "shitted"
- LocalH 10mo ago
  Not a trademark lawyer, but I wonder if that can actually result in implications of genericization.
  - Cpoll 10mo ago
    It's not genericization in this case, people only call X "Twitter," not all text-based short form social media.
    - rapnie 10mo ago
      I hear people on Mastodon, who undoubtedly came from X, talk about 'tweeting a Mastodon post' instead of posting or 'tooting'.

fwipsy 10mo ago

There's no way this will actually be allowed. Musk is petty, has deep pockets, and giving up the trademark also means losing Twitter.com and all the links to it. This filing must be a publicity stunt.

AlexAplin 10mo ago
For what it is worth, they have communicated that they do eventually plan to retire the domain themselves [1]: >Re-enrolling your security key will associate them with x[.]com, allowing us to retire the Twitter domain. [1] https://xcancel.com/Safety/status/1982278858457174522 https://xcancel.com/Safety/status/1982278858457174522

andreygrehov 10mo ago

[flagged]

iancmceachern 10mo ago

They famously lost the trademark to "Talkboy" and someone snagged it up recently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkboy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkboy