X Updates Terms, Countersues to Defend ‘Twitter’ Trademark

The former X trademark “Twitter” is still claimed by Elon Musk, and this is in accordance to an update in relation to its Terms of Service. The revelation from a Virginia-based startup that just submitted a trademark application for the term “Twitter” prompted the company to include this information in its terms.

Operation Bluebird, which is claimed to the startup, asserts that X renamed its social networking service, in which “X” in order to relinquish the brand “Twitter.” In its December 2 appeal to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the startup cited a July 23, 2023, post by X owner Musk declaring that the social network would shortly “bid adieu to the Twitter brand.”

And X has now filed a countersuit to counter the assertion. (At the time of publication, the filing is not yet visible in PACER; in which the members of the press received a copy of it through IP trademark law firm Gerben IP.) The bluebird logo and the Twitter and Tweet trademarks are still solely owned by X, according to the petition filed.

Operation Bluebird has been gathering prospective users to sign up for its own social network at Twitter.new since submitting its cancellation petition. The initiative is led by two solicitors, Stephen Coates, a former trademark attorney at Twitter, and Michael Peroff, the company’s creator and an Illinois resident. Their claim that they intend to introduce a new service to compete with X which appears to be implausible, given their backgrounds.

Since the trademark has intrinsic worth itself, it is more likely that they would wish to purchase it.

However, X isn’t taking any chances in that line and with effect from January 15, 2026, its updated Terms of Service read, “Nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use the X name or Twitter name or any of the X or Twitter trademarks, logos, domain names, other distinctive brand features, and other proprietary rights, and you may not do so without our express written consent.”

In the past, the terms in this section solely mentioned X. Twitter was not mentioned in any instance in the terms.

The terms also include other, smaller adjustments, such as references to created material and EU laws. A few references to age-assurance technology were also added to X’s amended privacy statement.

As it is now, over 145,000 people have already signed up for a competing platform on Twitter.new thanks to the startup.

And with respect to the trademark, it is deemed abandoned under the Lanham Act if its use is stopped with no intention of returning. X is using the “residual goodwill” concept to support its claim that, in spite of the public rebranding, the trademark remains legally active due to continuous consumer awareness and functional links (such as redirects).

Legal analysts has advised that the company may be more interested in acquiring the valuable trademark for its heritage brand equity than in starting a competitive business.