Elon Musk could lose Twitter to a startup. A former Twitter lawyer believes it’s possible

A Virginia-based startup called Operation Bluebird is trying to acquire the Twitter and tweet trademarks from Elon Musk’s X Corp. They’ve formally asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel the marks, claiming X abandoned them when it rebranded the platform to X. Bluebird has also filed its own trademark application for Twitter and plans to use it for a new social media site at twitter.new. The petition was filed by Stephen Coates, a former Twitter trademark lawyer who now runs a small law firm and serves as Bluebird’s general counsel (reported by Reuters).

Operation Bluebird aims to bring back Twitter

Bluebird points out that X has ditched the Twitter name, logo, and branding, redirecting twitter.com to x.com, which they say counts as abandoning the trademark. Under U.S. law, trademarks that aren’t actively used commercially can be canceled.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and rebranded it as X. His 2023 statement that the company would “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds” is being cited as evidence that the mark was abandoned.

That said, trademarks don’t automatically disappear just because a company stops using them. Non-use over time can make a mark vulnerable, but X could still try to block others from using the Twitter name. X’s last renewal of the Twitter trademark was approved in 2023, and the company has until February 2026 to respond to Bluebird’s petition.

Operation Bluebird isn’t just making a legal argument, they’ve already launched the twitter.new domain and allow users to reserve handles, signaling they hope to build a new social network reminiscent of the old Twitter experience.

Maybe Elon Musk will be so tied up with his AI and robotics projects, Grokipedia (launched this October), and all his other ventures that he won’t bother defending the Twitter trademark.

• twitter
• patents and trade marks
• Elon Musk