A Virginia startup calling itself Operation Bluebird introduced this week that it has filed a proper petition with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace, asking the federal company to cancel X Company’s emblems of the phrases “Twitter” and “tweet” since X has allegedly deserted them.
“The TWITTER and TWEET manufacturers have been eradicated from X Corp.’s merchandise, providers, and advertising, successfully abandoning the storied model, with no intention to renew use of the mark,” the petition states. “The TWITTER fowl was grounded.”
If profitable, two leaders of the group inform Ars, Operation Bluebird would launch a social community beneath the title Twitter.new, probably as early as late subsequent 12 months. (Twitter.new has created a working prototype and is already inviting customers to order handles.)
Neither X Company nor its proprietor Elon Musk instantly responded to Ars Technica’s request for remark.
Michael Peroff, an Illinois lawyer and founding father of Operation Bluebird, mentioned that within the intervening years, extra Twitter-like social media networks have sprung up or gained traction—like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky. However none have the size or model recognition that Twitter did previous to Musk’s takeover.
“There definitely are alternate options,” Peroff mentioned. “I don’t know that any of them at this time limit are on the scale that will make a distinction within the nationwide dialog, whereas a brand new Twitter actually might.”
Equally, Peroff’s enterprise accomplice, Stephen Coates, an lawyer who previously served as Twitter’s normal counsel, mentioned that Operation Bluebird goals to re-create a number of the magic that Twitter as soon as had.
“I bear in mind a while in the past, I’ve had celebrities react to my content material on Twitter through the Tremendous Bowl or occasions,” he advised Ars. “And we would like that have to return again, that complete city sq., the place we’re all meshed in there.”
Might It Work?
Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion. He ultimately modified the corporate title and model id from Twitter to X. That call, Operation Bluebird says, created a gap for the Twitter title to be formally deserted.
In July 2023, Musk himself tweeted that “we will bid adieu to the twitter model, and step by step, all of the birds.”
That was when Peroff, a Chicago-area lawyer specializing in trademark and IP legislation, noticed a chance not solely to assert the title Twitter but additionally to make use of the enduring illustrated brand that was affectionately referred to internally as “Larry Chicken.”
