Elon Musk’s X Corp faces an unexpected legal battle over something it supposedly left behind which was the Twitter brand. A Virginia-based startup called Operation Bluebird wants to bring Twitter back from the dead, claiming Musk’s company abandoned the iconic name when it rebranded to X. Now X Corp is suing to protect what it says never actually left.
Operation Bluebird filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office on December 2, asking officials to cancel X Corp’s ownership of the “Twitter” and “Tweet” trademarks. The startup argues X Corp “legally abandoned its rights” to the Twitter brand with “no intention to resume use.”
Operation Bluebird has already started taking reservations for account handles on its planned Twitter.new site. The startup wants to launch a new social media platform using the Twitter name that once defined how millions of people communicated online.
But X Corp isn’t giving up without a fight. The company fired back with a 43-page lawsuit in Delaware federal court on Tuesday, claiming Operation Bluebird is trying to “steal” billions of dollars worth of brand value.
X Corp Claims Twitter Brand Still Lives Despite Rebrand to X
“Twitter never left and continues to be exclusively owned by X Corp,” the lawsuit states. The company argues its rebrand to X doesn’t mean it abandoned the Twitter trademark.
X Corp points to several facts that support its case. More than four million users still access the platform through twitter.com as of December 11. People continue calling X posts “tweets” in everyday conversation. Some websites still show Twitter’s bird logo when linking to X.
The company began redirecting traffic from twitter.com to x.com last year, but maintained the old domain. X Corp says this proves it never intended to abandon the Twitter brand completely.
“Twitter is one of the world’s most recognised brands, and it belongs to X Corp,” the lawsuit declares. “Simply put, a rebrand is not an abandonment of trademark rights.”
Legal Expert Says Operation Bluebird Faces Mount Everest Challenge
Josh Gerben, a Washington DC trademark attorney following the case, told reporters that proving abandonment will be extremely difficult for Operation Bluebird. He compared their challenge to climbing Mount Everest.
“X Corp didn’t have to file the lawsuit,” Gerben explained. The company could have defended against the cancellation petition through the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board instead.
“This case shows that while X Corp may have tried to bury the Twitter brand, they clearly aren’t ready to let anyone else dig it up,” Gerben added.
Former Twitter Lawyer Leads Charge Against His Old Company
The legal battle has an interesting twist. Stephen Coates, Operation Bluebird’s general counsel, previously worked as a trademark lawyer for Twitter before the X rebrand. Now he’s leading the charge to take the Twitter name away from his former employer.
“X publicly declared the Twitter brand ‘dead,’ and spent substantial resources establishing a new brand identity,” Coates said in response to the lawsuit.
Michael Peroff, Operation Bluebird’s founder, remains confident despite facing a tech giant with unlimited legal resources. “Our cancellation petition is based on well-established trademark law, and we believe we will be successful,” he stated. “We are prepared to take this as far as we need to achieve our goal.”
X Corp Seeks Court Orders and Financial Damages
X Corp wants the court to force Operation Bluebird to stop using anything related to the Twitter brand. The company also asks the USPTO to deny and invalidate the startup’s trademark application.
The lawsuit claims Operation Bluebird deliberately chose a name and logo similar to Twitter’s to “draw a false association” with X Corp’s established brand. X Corp argues the startup could have picked from “nearly limitless options” for brand names but chose to capitalise on Twitter’s existing reputation.
X Corp also seeks unspecified monetary damages for what it calls copyright infringement.
Brand Worth Billions Still Generates User Loyalty
The legal fight shows how valuable the Twitter brand remains even after Musk’s aggressive rebrand campaign. When Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, he promised to bid “adieu to the Twitter brand” and eliminate “all the birds” gradually.
But users proved resistant to change. Many people still call the platform Twitter in casual conversation. The persistence of twitter.com as a working domain suggests X Corp recognised the continued value of the Twitter brand.
Operation Bluebird’s petition represents the first serious challenge to X Corp’s ownership of the Twitter trademark since the rebrand. The startup’s effort to resurrect Twitter as a competing platform could force courts to decide whether a tech company can abandon a trademark while still claiming ownership rights.
The case will likely take months to resolve through the court system. Until then, both companies are preparing for a legal battle that could determine who owns one of social media’s most recognisable brand names.
