Elon Musk Wants Twitter to Become X, But Meta Already Owns the Trademark
As Elon Musk rebrands Twitter into X, he faces a thorny legal problem: A tech giant where he's seen as persona non grata already owns the trademark to the X brand for social media services.
In 2019, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta received(Opens in a new window) a trademark for its own X logo to be used across a variety of internet-related services, including social networking and digital messaging.
In addition, a myriad of other companies also hold the rights to X logos for their own product purposes, such as clothing, drones, and cryptocurrency. That includes Microsoft, which was granted(Opens in a new window) the trademark in 2003 for Xbox video game-related services.
“There's a 100% chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody," trademark attorney Josh Gerben tells(Opens in a new window) Reuters.
A legal battle between Twitter and Meta would be ironic given that Musk has already threatened to sue Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing trade secrets to build Threads. That said, Twitter’s X logo is distinctly different from Meta’s own trademark, as you can see below.
A lawsuit claiming trademark infringement would have to argue that Twitter’s rebrand is causing “confusion in the minds of consumers,” according(Opens in a new window) to the US Patent Office. Meta hasn’t been widely using its own X trademark, though.
While the Twitter name has major brand recognition, Musk views the overhaul as part of his plan to turn Twitter into a super app capable of online payments, personal messaging, and video calls, in addition to social media.
"X is the future state of unlimited interactivity—centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking—creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and
Read more on pcmag.com
