In July 2023, Musk himself tweeted that “we will bid adieu to the twitter model, and steadily, all of the birds.”
That was when Peroff, a Chicago-area legal professional specializing in trademark and IP legislation, noticed a chance not solely to assert the identify Twitter but in addition to make use of the enduring illustrated brand that was affectionately referred to internally as “Larry Hen.”
Peroff and others started formally organizing Operation Bluebird, a approach to carry again Twitter in identify, companies, and format, catering particularly to industrial manufacturers.
Some companies have been reluctant to promote on X for worry that they are going to be related to unsavory content material, equivalent to extremist views, scam-like posts, or pornbots. In September 2024, Kantar Market, a market analysis agency, put out a examine noting that 26 % of surveyed entrepreneurs deliberate to desert their advert campaigns on X.
“We predict our moderation instruments will assist the dialogue evolve into one thing extra accountable,” Peroff mentioned. “Manufacturers are caught on X as a result of they don’t have any different place to go.”
Whereas Threads, which is owned by Meta, started testing advertisements earlier this 12 months, solely not too long ago did it attain the size—round 400 million month-to-month energetic customers—that Twitter had on the time of its acquisition by Musk. Neither Mastodon nor Bluesky have any promoting in the meanwhile.
Mark Lemley, a Stanford Legislation professor and knowledgeable in trademark legislation, informed Ars that X may have the ability to defend the Twitter marks if it may possibly present that it’s nonetheless utilizing them.
“Mere ‘token use’ received’t be sufficient to order the mark,” Lemley wrote in an e mail. “Or [X] may defend if it may possibly present that it plans to return to utilizing Twitter. Shoppers clearly nonetheless know the model identify. It appears bizarre to assume another person may seize the identify when shoppers nonetheless affiliate it with the ex-social media web site of that identify. However that’s what the legislation says.”
Mark Jaffe, an mental property legal professional in California who will not be concerned within the case, thinks that X Company might have a battle to maintain the Twitter marks.
“As soon as it’s not distinguished on the web site and the proprietor, the CEO, says it’s now referred to as this and never that,” he informed Ars, “I don’t know the way you beat an abandonment argument.”
