A dramatic trademark battle has emerged as a small tech startup moves to claim the 'Twitter' name, arguing that Elon Musk's company has abandoned it. The dispute centres on whether X Corp, formerly Twitter, still has legal rights to the brand after a series of changes made since Musk's takeover. Operation Bluebird, a young Virginia-based platform, has now formally asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Twitter's long-held protections. But just what do we know of what's happening here?
Operation Bluebird submitted its petition on 02 December 2025, seeking permission to use the terms 'Twitter' and 'tweet' for its own service. The startup plans to launch a rival platform titled 'twitter.new', which it aims to market using the branding once associated with the former Twitter site. The filing argues that X Corp no longer uses these marks and has therefore abandoned them.
