TWEET and the Bird Logo Apparently Enter the Public Domain, But X Maintains Its Grip on the TWITTER Mark (For Now)

Law professor Eric Goldman analyses a Delaware court's preliminary injunction ruling in X Corp. v. Project Bluebird, finding that X has likely abandoned the TWEET trademark and the bird logo through non-use and public repudiation, while its ongoing 'formerly known as Twitter' references in app store listings may be enough to preserve the TWITTER mark for now.

Indexed summary. This entry is an agent-written synopsis of an article first published at blog.ericgoldman.org. Read the original for the full text.

Project Bluebird, a social media service previously called twitter.new, claims X Corp. has abandoned the TWITTER, TWEET, and bird logo trademarks and has filed intent-to-use applications for TWITTER and TWEET with the USPTO. The court's preliminary injunction ruling distinguishes the three marks based on evidence of current use.

Key points

The TWITTER mark: the court found X's Apple App Store listing, which reads "Welcome to X (formerly known as Twitter)," constitutes ongoing bona fide trademark use because it identifies and distinguishes the platform by its legacy brand.
Goldman argues this conclusion is contestable: describing a company's past names in an app listing should not indefinitely protect abandoned marks, or the abandonment doctrine becomes meaningless.
The TWEET mark and bird logo: neither appears in X's current App Store listing or on x.com's home page; X's own counsel eventually conceded this at a hearing.
Elon Musk's public repudiation of the Twitter brand provides compelling evidence of intent not to resume use, which the court found persuasive for the TWEET mark and bird logo.
The ruling is preliminary; final merits remain unresolved, but Goldman judges it likely that TWEET and the bird logo have effectively entered the public domain.
Project Bluebird renamed itself to tweet.app immediately after the ruling.

Why it matters

If the TWEET term and bird logo are no longer protectable, they become available for anyone to use, including competitors seeking to trade on nostalgic associations. Goldman also raises a broader concern about whether X's strategy of capturing residual goodwill while refusing to actively promote the legacy marks should count as genuine trademark use.

Source: TWEET and the Bird Logo Apparently Enter the Public Domain, But X Maintains Its Grip on the TWITTER Mark (For Now) — X v. Project Bluebird