A fledgling social media platform has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel trademarks for Twitter so it can take them for itself, contending that billionaire Elon Musk’s X Corp has abandoned them.

The Virginia-based start-up, Operation Bluebird, said in its 2 December petition that it wants to be allowed to use “Twitter” and “tweet” for a rival social media platform called twitter.new. It also filed an application to trademark “Twitter”.

The petition was filed by Stephen Coates, a former trademark lawyer at Twitter who now serves as Operation Bluebird’s general counsel and runs a small law firm.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for US$44-billion and rebranded the site to X. Operation Bluebird’s filings contend that X has “eradicated” the Twitter brand from its products, services and marketing.

Musk in 2023 said in a post on X that the company would “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds”.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Coates in a statement called the matter “straightforward” after X allegedly stopped using the Twitter trademark commercially. “X legally abandoned the Twitter mark,” Coates said.

The rebranded X does not feature Twitter’s famous blue bird logo, and the platform has migrated from to x.com. X Corp’s 2023 renewal registration for the Twitter trademark was approved last year.

‘An interesting test’

Josh Gerben, an intellectual property lawyer who is not involved in the dispute, said X would face obstacles defending its ownership of the trademarks if the company no longer uses them. But he said X could try to block Operation Bluebird’s commercial use of the Twitter name even if the cancellation is successful.