Elon Musk spent the last year scrubbing the Twitter name and its famous bluebird logo from the internet, replacing them with a stark “X.” But now that a startup actively wants to take the discarded brand, X is suddenly scrambling to keep it.
TechCrunch reports that X recently updated its terms of service to explicitly state that it still owns the “Twitter” name and trademarks. This move is a direct response to Operation Bluebird, a new company that filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel X’s control over the old brand.
Stephen Coates, a former general counsel for Twitter, co-founded Operation Bluebird. His team argues that X has no right to hoard a trademark it intentionally destroyed. They point to Musk’s own posts from July 2022, where he promised to “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” Since then, the company removed the name from its apps, website headers, and headquarters.
“The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.’s products,” Operation Bluebird wrote in its petition. The startup wants to claim the name for a new social platform hosted on Twitter. They have already convinced over 145,000 people to sign up for a handle.
X isn’t letting go easily. The platform’s updated terms, effective January 16, 2025, warn users that they have no right to use the Twitter name or logos without written consent. The company also filed a counter-petition asserting the trademarks remain its “exclusive property.” While X changed almost everything about the service, they do rely on one lingering connection: Twitter.com still redirects users to X.com.
Coates says he feels confident because X publicly declared the brand “dead” and spent millions establishing a new identity. X, however, seems to realize that even if they don’t want the bird, they definitely don’t want anyone else flying with it.
