Operation Bluebird Wants To Relaunch 'Twitter' For a New Social Network (theverge.com) 81
A startup called Operation Bluebird is petitioning the US Patent and Trademark Office to strip X Corp of the "Twitter" and "tweet" trademarks, hoping to relaunch a new Twitter with the old brand, bird logo, and "town square" vibe. "The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.'s products, services, and marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark," the petition states. "The TWITTER bird was grounded." Ars Technica reports: If successful, two leaders of the group tell Ars, Operation Bluebird would launch a social network under the name Twitter.new, possibly as early as late next year. (Twitter.new has created a working prototype and is already inviting users to reserve handles.)
Michael Peroff, an Illinois attorney and founder of Operation Bluebird, said that in the intervening years, more Twitter-like social media networks have sprung up or gained traction -- like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky. But none have the scale or brand recognition that Twitter did prior to Musk's takeover. "There certainly are alternatives," Peroff said. "I don't know that any of them at this point in time are at the scale that would make a difference in the national conversation, whereas a new Twitter really could."
Similarly, Peroff's business partner, Stephen Coates, an attorney who formerly served as Twitter's general counsel, said that Operation Bluebird aims to recreate some of the magic that Twitter once had. "I remember some time ago, I've had celebrities react to my content on Twitter during the Super Bowl or events," he told Ars. "And we want that experience to come back, that whole town square, where we are all meshed in there." "Mere 'token use' won't be enough to reserve the mark," said Mark Lemley, a Stanford Law professor and expert in trademark law. "Or [X] could defend if it can show that it plans to go back to using Twitter. Consumers obviously still know the brand name. It seems weird to think someone else could grab the name when consumers still associate it with the ex-social media site of that name. But that's what the law says."
Michael Peroff, an Illinois attorney and founder of Operation Bluebird, said that in the intervening years, more Twitter-like social media networks have sprung up or gained traction -- like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky. But none have the scale or brand recognition that Twitter did prior to Musk's takeover. "There certainly are alternatives," Peroff said. "I don't know that any of them at this point in time are at the scale that would make a difference in the national conversation, whereas a new Twitter really could."
Similarly, Peroff's business partner, Stephen Coates, an attorney who formerly served as Twitter's general counsel, said that Operation Bluebird aims to recreate some of the magic that Twitter once had. "I remember some time ago, I've had celebrities react to my content on Twitter during the Super Bowl or events," he told Ars. "And we want that experience to come back, that whole town square, where we are all meshed in there." "Mere 'token use' won't be enough to reserve the mark," said Mark Lemley, a Stanford Law professor and expert in trademark law. "Or [X] could defend if it can show that it plans to go back to using Twitter. Consumers obviously still know the brand name. It seems weird to think someone else could grab the name when consumers still associate it with the ex-social media site of that name. But that's what the law says."
Say 'me too' or perish (Score:3, Insightful)
As always, the big question is: What can BlueBird offer that is different to Mastodon and BlueSky? What's their market USP? They have to obey the same censorship laws and (eventually) age-restriction laws. They'll be manipulated by the same bots and disinformation networks as Twitter, unless their subscriber's down-vote the propaganda. The only advantage, is a 'guaranteed' user base (via brand recognition) allows them to monetize their product quickly. Since X (formerly Twitter) has market share, they're depending on those legacy users to change to BlueBird for no real benefit.
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... social media as a whole is dying ...
I really wish it was....
Re: Say 'me too' or perish (Score:2, Insightful)
What tells you people are leaving these?
Last I checked, Fecebook still has millions of active users, and fuckerberg is still raising a shit every time an app store adds a rule that restricts his ability to spy on people, as if he thinks he has any power to do anything about it. His net worth would take a major hit if people really left it, which would be funny, but it hasn't.
I still can't figure out what the fuck mastodon is, aside from the fact that Trump Social uses its code, and on toot.io right this sec
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The big issue is social media as a whole is dying.
i don't think so. you might think so because you left a bubble and lost visibility (possibly to escape into a different bubble). it has diversified and fragmented a bit, lost novelty, a tiny minority has become bored, a fraction of that talks all day about going "analog" and "off the grid" (guess where: on social media), but still has huge traction and influence. i don't see it dying anytime soon. au contraire, it's just evolving.
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You had to go anonymous to post this? Pathetique...
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Translation: No-one can compete with the Twitter (now X) market-share because of legacy users but we plan to cheat by re-using their former name, logo and trademark.
As always, the big question is: What can BlueBird offer that is different to Mastodon and BlueSky? What's their market USP? They have to obey the same censorship laws and (eventually) age-restriction laws. They'll be manipulated by the same bots and disinformation networks as Twitter, unless their subscriber's down-vote the propaganda. The only advantage, is a 'guaranteed' user base (via brand recognition) allows them to monetize their product quickly. Since X (formerly Twitter) has market share, they're depending on those legacy users to change to BlueBird for no real benefit.
For me, mentions of TheAppFormerlyKnownAsTwitter have pretty much disappeared. News sites no longer quote tweets, friends no longer mention them. The only time I hear about them is when they get another fine for breaking the law or Musk does something else incredibly stupid.
Social Media itself is dying, but TheAppFormerlyKnownAsTwitter is exemplifying why. Social media has now become beholden to rich people who are using it to try and drown out voices they don't like. Hence people are switching off. It's
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every single day here there are posts the reference content posted on "X" ... just because you have removed yourself doesn't mean a god damn thing.
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every single day here there are posts the reference content posted on "X" ... just because you have removed yourself doesn't mean a god damn thing.
Here's the thing, I was never a part of Twitter... definitely not a part of the TheAppFormerlyKnownAsTwitter.
My entire exposure to it from go to woah was via thrid parties... most notably reputable news agencies. As said news agencies care about their reputation, they've stopped quoting it as a source and social media in general. Twitter used to be very well cited, barely a BBC article used to go by without a section of "this is what some random twat on Twitter had to say about it" but that is all gone n
Oh the irony... (Score:2)
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A Twitter-branded Mastodon instance might have a decent shot at success just due to the branding advantage, nothing since Twitter has been as well-known as Twitter.
Tried Mastodon, failed at #GuessTheHashtag (Score:2)
A Twitter-branded Mastodon instance
It'd have to support full-text search by default. Mastodon, last I checked, was still in practice stuck with tags-only search that fails unless both the poster and searcher manage to correctly #GuessTheHashtag. I've read that Mastodon added in version 4.2.0, but I've never got it to work because it's not the default: the posting user has to deliberately seek out how to opt into full-text search [fedi.tips] before sending posts, and the administrator of the searcher's instance has to spend a lot more money for a much la
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Translation: No-one can compete with the Twitter (now X) market-share because of legacy users but we plan to cheat by re-using their former name, logo and trademark.
Not quite. There's no reason to believe the new thing won't compete either. Legacy users have auto-migrated to X.
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How, exactly, is it cheating?
If the legacy users abandon the X platform because they prefer the branding or "the vibes", then it was fundamentally a mistake on Musk's part to change those things. Recognizing what consumers really want... isn't that the ENTIRE POINT of capitalism?
People seem to be profoundly opposed to the changes that accompanied the rebranding from Twitter to X, but they seem to have trouble choosing a successor platform en masse. Perhaps reviving the Twitter marks will resolve the issue.
I
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They can annoy Musk by claiming the Twitter trademark.
All for it. (Score:2, Informative)
His Nazi bar will always be Xitter to me.
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Re:All for it. (Score:5, Informative)
Americans can't even go on our own frothing racist diatribes anymore, we just pay someone else to do it.
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This is certainly within the realm of possibility but do you have a source? Also, why would he recently release a feature that shows the country of origin for accounts if he was shilling accounts in other countries?
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That's on the horse, of course.
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It's not about the platform (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with all of these platforms is not what what they're called or what they look like, or even how they function for the most part. The so-called "magic" is gone because these services are flooded with inauthentic content and behaviors. Everything is either an advertisement, propaganda, or influencer/AI slop. The signal-to-noise ratio is too low, which drives away genuine contributors and stops new people from joining and gaining critical mass.
The current state of social media is a reflection of the inability of its users to simultaneously discern what is inauthentic behavior and to free themselves of its effects. If you ask a reasonable person if they actively desire being lied to and manipulated for financial gain, they would say no; but when such deception is packaged in a tantalizing form, they find that not only can they not resist, they don't WANT to resist. Like an addict, they want and embrace the deception, to the point where they get angry at anyone who dares to pull back the curtain. The result is an abundance of weaponized and optimized inauthentic content that is being used to manipulate and monetize.
So no, bringing back the "Twitter" name and functionality is not going to do anything, because even before it was made into the hellscape that is called X, it was its own special cesspool.
Re:It's not about the platform (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it's really about any of this. This smells to me like a pump and dump scheme. Get investors thinking this idea is hot shit because it's based on a well-established brand, and then make off with the money before anyone realizes the world didn't really need yet another microblogging service.
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You did this to yourself.
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When exactly do you think was Twitter full of authentic content?
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They already registered twitter(dot)new. If they are allowed to keep it depends on if Musk's trademark is still valid.
Publicity stunt: if they launch, it will be as Blu (Score:3)
This smells of a publicity stunt. If they launch, it will be as Bluebird.
Anyway we have Bluesky which has some interesting users. Mastodon is just too much work to find and follow interesting people. Like or not, X is where the legacy crowd still is.
Poor choice. (Score:5, Informative)
“Many users continue to refer to X as ‘Twitter’ and posts on X as ‘tweets,’ which demonstrates continued association and strengthens the case for residual goodwill,” [Alexandra Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University School of Law] says. She points to a 2020 case where a party attempted to register “Aunt Jemima” for breakfast foods, but was rejected “based on a likelihood of confusion” with Quaker Oats’ Aunt Jemima marks, even though the company had announced earlier that year that it was discontinuing the name and logo.
Beyond this, X has the resources to keep Operation Bluebird in court longer than Operation Bluebird can afford legal representation.
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That comes later. They're trying to get the trademark cancelled - which is made easier with public statements saying Twitter is dead, and Musk posting that it's not Twitter, but X and to stop referring it as such.
Once the trademark is cancelled, they are free to then register it and then maybe X would be able to sue.
At best, X could contest the cancellation and registration req
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At best, X could contest the cancellation and registration request with the USPTO, but it's again going to be hard as X/Musk have done a lot of disavow Twitter.
Did you not read my post?
“Many users continue to refer to X as ‘Twitter’ and posts on X as ‘tweets,’ which demonstrates continued association and strengthens the case for residual goodwill,” [Alexandra Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University School of Law] says.
But just for you, I'll throw in this:
Intellectual property attorney Douglas Masters says he is doubtful that Operation Bluebird’s claims will be successful. “I don’t know that the record ultimately will show that even though they [X Corp.] switched to X, that they intended to give up all of their commercial use and rights in the word Twitter,” Masters tells The Verge.
But hey, I'm sure you know more about trademark law than some legal professor or a practicing lawyer. /s
Use it or lose it. (Score:3)
That is the way with trademarks. X management has been very clear about stopping to use the name Twitter;
which means they won't use it anymore, therefore, they have no business continuing to claim a trademark.
That said the artists who drew the Twitter icon still get the copyright to their Logo and art assets, so another company shouldn't be able to just start using those. They will need to have to have their own art created.
If Elon really cared about the Twitter mark it would be, or would have been extremely easy; to keep a service Live using the mark.
Such as a Testbed website for X, for example, or an extra service to still be marketed under the Twitter name.. so called "Token use" wouldn't be sufficient, But you only need to have one actual service still using the branding to prevent it from being "abandoned". You can have a limited service with 100 customers, and still have the rights to your trademark. So If Elon/Twitter/X cares about this in the slightest; they should be able to easily block this proceeding. And you just need to resume use of it within 3 years to avoid it being abandoned under US law. So it's odd for them to petition the trademark office so early.. X can apply a new use of the mark within any schedule they want before that date. The attempt to usurp their IP would easily be blocked if X still cares in the slightest.
Honestly (Score:1)
I will never call it "X"; it will always be Twitter.
So, unless I start getting daily nudes akin to the John Gill the Timber Man calendar of the 80s and 90s, it will never be "X".
Re:Honestly (Score:5, Funny)
I will never call it "X"; it will always be Twitter.
I call it "Twit-X"; both as an homage to its old name, and in reference to the twit named Musk who gave it a new name while turning it into a steaming pile of dogshit.
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Xitter.
For pronunciation guidance, I refer you to Xi Jinping.
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"conservative speech", you mean "conservative whining". How come the Right turned into a whiny bunch of geezers complaining about how their lives were miserable because someone might be using the bathroom the Right wishes they wouldn't?
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Yeah, that's not what happens on the platform. But it does still look like that today. Conservatives see liberal posts more often and vice versa. They are engagement baiting you for ad dollars. They still do. It's very profitable.
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So are they going to bring back the leftist censorship of conservative speech?
It's nice that you see the conflation between conservative speech and nazi rhetoric & hate speech. You're so close to getting it.
Bluesky (Score:2)
They're talking about Bluesky.
why not just launch as "BlueBird" (Score:1)
Re:why not just launch as "BlueBird" (Score:4, Insightful)
There is zero chance that they're going to get the rights to twitter. This is probably just a publicity stunt to get their dumb platform more known.
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Let's drain the swamp (Score:2, Funny)
Let's drain the swamp and then refill it with fresh sewage.
Let's be honest (Score:2)
AI could vibe code up a twitter clone prototype in about 90 seconds. This is NOT an achievement
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A college freshman could do it in a few hours
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Even if they manage to convince some corrupt patent official to steal the patent, X will sue them to death, and they'll win.
Not reading the summary: Task completed successfully.
There is nothing relating to patents in this story. Terms being used in product names have to be actively used in a product. You can't just call dibs on a word and then not do anything with it. That includes terms you used in the past. Otherwise we would eventually run out of practical names for products due to past use in history and "Trademark Trolls" who register everything in the dictionary and sit on it -- the result will be product names that look
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It's much easier than that. If X gets wind of this effort before the trademark is invalidated (it's published news, so...), they just have to start using the brand name at least somewhere just once in a while. That's it. It's protected. It's not a patent. Trademarks are use it or lose it and using it is an absolute defense.
The richest guy in the world will (Score:2)
launch you to Mars one way without a helmet if you fuck with his IP
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That's more of a matter of budget than technology. We don't have to send the return-fuel on a single big ship, we can send multiple that dock up in orbit over Mars.
The "Magic of the Twitter Brand" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: The "Magic of the Twitter Brand" (Score:2)
They waited far too long to ban Trump. I left years before January 6. Not that I ever used it much before.
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No you fucking moron. That's what killed it.
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The important question.. can we say slurs? (Score:2)
n/t
Thanks but just no to Social Media (Score:1)
I was one of the first people in my circle of friends and colleagues that got onto Facebook. (Back then it was a nice way to reconnect with some far-off relatives etc., and we didn't foresee all the shenanigans that would later come into play.) But since then, I've very scrupulously avoided signing up for more of this crap. No Instagram, no Whatsapp, no Circles, Orkut, Wave, Buzz, G+, Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky, Fairyplaygroundforwankers, and DEFINITELY not Twitter. The rebrand to X did not make me reconsid
Good luck with that (Score:2)
No Real American Uses X (Score:2)