X Corp. Sues Startup for Twitter Trademark Infringement

X Corp., the social media company owned by Elon Musk, filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday in Delaware against startup Operation Bluebird, accusing it of trademark infringement in an attempt to claim the Twitter name for a rival platform. The legal action follows Operation Bluebird's recent petition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeking to cancel X's trademarks for Twitter, Tweet, and the associated blue bird logo, arguing that the company abandoned the brand during its 2023 rebranding.

The dispute centers on whether X relinquished rights to the Twitter name after Musk acquired the platform in 2022 for $44 billion and renamed it X the following year. Operation Bluebird, a Virginia-based startup led by founder Michael Peroff and Stephen Coates, a former trademark lawyer at the original Twitter, filed its cancellation petition on December 2. The filing cited a July 23, 2023, post from Musk stating that the platform would "soon bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds." The startup contended that this rebranding demonstrated no intent to resume use of the marks, effectively abandoning them under U.S. trademark law.

In response, X asserted in its 43-page...