Twitter’s Rebrand to X Could Be a Trademark Nightmare Thanks to Microsoft(themessenger.com)
themessenger.com
Twitter’s Rebrand to X Could Be a Trademark Nightmare Thanks to Microsoft
https://themessenger.com/tech/twitters-rebrand-to-x-could-be-a-trademark-nightmare-thanks-to-microsoft
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It doesn't matter if it's a trademark nightmare... it's a branding nightmare.
Musk is showing the world that he got lucky with his previous ventures. His management of Twitter has been a display of poor management at every level.
If you were less than a year into your position as CEO of a company with revenue divided by half, ex-employees suing you, banned journalists from your platform in the middle of some half-thought-out free speech debate... would you not be fired?
Everything about this makes me think he's just too rich to be fired... anyone else would have been. He just owns too much to not be given any more chances.
Musk is showing the world that he got lucky with his previous ventures. His management of Twitter has been a display of poor management at every level.
If you were less than a year into your position as CEO of a company with revenue divided by half, ex-employees suing you, banned journalists from your platform in the middle of some half-thought-out free speech debate... would you not be fired?
Everything about this makes me think he's just too rich to be fired... anyone else would have been. He just owns too much to not be given any more chances.
Twitter's rebrand to X could also be a nightmare because it's fucking dumb.
Everyone seems to be missing the interesting part here.
It's that Twitter is using a generic Monotype font letter for their brand.
Which would mean that their brand will not be able to be trademarked and thus anyone could use it to associate their dodgy product with the main site. So I wouldn't worry about Meta, Microsoft etc but about the insane number of X ripoffs we are going to see in the future e.g. X crypto coin, X bots.
It's that Twitter is using a generic Monotype font letter for their brand.
Which would mean that their brand will not be able to be trademarked and thus anyone could use it to associate their dodgy product with the main site. So I wouldn't worry about Meta, Microsoft etc but about the insane number of X ripoffs we are going to see in the future e.g. X crypto coin, X bots.
Most people would probably agree that Musk made some very bad and rookie-looking decisions since acquiring Twitter. Also he has said a lot of very controversial things in the last 1-2 years.
Before that he arguably was a lot more well respected as an entrepreneur - keeping a lower profile and building a couple of extremely successful businesses in parallel.
My big question that I’m still searching for an answer to: Did he drastically change as a person in the last couple of years? Or was he just “lucky” to build SpaceX and Tesla into tremendous successes? Or is he still a genius and all of us simply can’t see how he’s making Twitter into the next big success in his CV?
If he did change as a person - why? What happened? Bad breakup? Drug abuse? Depression? Too much self confidence? Too much stress for too long? Something else?
Before that he arguably was a lot more well respected as an entrepreneur - keeping a lower profile and building a couple of extremely successful businesses in parallel.
My big question that I’m still searching for an answer to: Did he drastically change as a person in the last couple of years? Or was he just “lucky” to build SpaceX and Tesla into tremendous successes? Or is he still a genius and all of us simply can’t see how he’s making Twitter into the next big success in his CV?
If he did change as a person - why? What happened? Bad breakup? Drug abuse? Depression? Too much self confidence? Too much stress for too long? Something else?
No one even mentions Google X which rebranded to just X years ago. Clearly it’s been effective that no one even points this out. Yet another winning project.
One interesting aspect is that trademarks have to be in use in order to be defended.
If Musk’s X moves away from the name “Twitter” and the bird logo as completely as they seem likely to, those will become essentially undefended trademarks that someone else could start using.
Want to found Twitter all over again?
There are ways (legal tricks) to rebrand while defending the old brand. But these require detailed legal advice, disciplined ops, and a will to do so. I’d say that it looks like Musk is lacking all three of those at X right now.
If Musk’s X moves away from the name “Twitter” and the bird logo as completely as they seem likely to, those will become essentially undefended trademarks that someone else could start using.
Want to found Twitter all over again?
There are ways (legal tricks) to rebrand while defending the old brand. But these require detailed legal advice, disciplined ops, and a will to do so. I’d say that it looks like Musk is lacking all three of those at X right now.
Musk's explanation:
"Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.
The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.
In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird."
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1683656350046232578
"Twitter was acquired by X Corp both to ensure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the everything app. This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing.
The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.
In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird."
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1683656350046232578
It's interesting to examine this website with the thousands of trademarks for "X". Some are extremely stylized while others are just the letter X. Some are specific to particular colors. Some cover very narrow areas. Microsoft has a lot of trademarks here, but Apple shows up too.
https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=X
https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=X
Elon must have been aware that a single letter can cause a trademark issue. After all, Tesla has models S, 3, X, Y because Ford ready had an "E"
The owners of “X” box? Who woulda thunk it.
Now then, of course Musk can challenge it, and given his domain ownership, possibly successfully even.
But given the scads of lawyers who Musk owes money to, yet is not paying, who will take the fight on?
Now then, of course Musk can challenge it, and given his domain ownership, possibly successfully even.
But given the scads of lawyers who Musk owes money to, yet is not paying, who will take the fight on?
It's kind of dumb that someone could trademark a letter.
If a complete rebranding to X actually happens, I wonder if someone else is allowed to take over the Twitter brand.
But I suspect what will happen is people will continue to call it Twitter and the X name will not stick.
But I suspect what will happen is people will continue to call it Twitter and the X name will not stick.
There is a german saying: "Satz mit X, war wohl nix." that comes to mind. Anti-Search Engine Optimisation. The world has really passed google by, if this is a valid option.
If it is just a trademark issue and not logo design, could Twitter just make it x.com? Elon made x.com in 1999. He could pitch it as a revival rather than simple X the company.
Meta also owns the trademark in the context of social networks.
Bizarre that Zuck and Musk and I suppose "Goog" can have these spasms of inability to understand branding. Bezos needs a fit of it so we can rename Amazon to, uh, Fwoop. Why not.
This has to be the most moronic part of Elon's plan.
Firing everyone to improve operating margins, I understand that.
Iterating on features rapidly, even if they're not quite ready for prime time? That makes a lot of sense if you're trying to beat out the competition.
Rebranding your website and conference rooms? This sounds like a stupid waste of time and effort. If you wanted to create X the next twitter, just do a start up. Everyone would have signed up just because Elon Musk was using it. You didn't need to buy twitter for that.
Just stupid.
Firing everyone to improve operating margins, I understand that.
Iterating on features rapidly, even if they're not quite ready for prime time? That makes a lot of sense if you're trying to beat out the competition.
Rebranding your website and conference rooms? This sounds like a stupid waste of time and effort. If you wanted to create X the next twitter, just do a start up. Everyone would have signed up just because Elon Musk was using it. You didn't need to buy twitter for that.
Just stupid.
It's not "X", it's "𝕏" (U+1D54F)
Maybe he should trademark this unicode character instead of letter "X".
Maybe he should trademark this unicode character instead of letter "X".
There is also this site, https://x.company, which is a division of Google / Alphabet... It will be very confusing...
X window system?
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Seems like the only people making money in this whole thing is the company hired to change the sign every other week when Musk decides to make a joke or do a sudden rebrand.
Poorly titled and I'm surprised nobody is calling it out. The body of the article shows that there is an entire minefield of trademark issues with several companies and entities to navigate, but the blame is being placed solely on MS' feet as though they should have known, 20 years ago, what Twitter would be doing today. A better one might be Twitter’s Rebrand Is A Field Of Nightmares.
It's also pretty close to the logo for x.org.
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What?? You mean Elon made another colossal mistake, bbbut hes such a business genius...
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They made the change but https://x.com still leads to a GoDaddy parking page for me…
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87980831&caseType=SERIAL_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixer_(service)