Elon Musk has taken a fresh step toward reinforcing ownership of the “Twitter” brand, signalling a renewed legal and strategic interest in the platform’s original identity despite its rebrand to X.
The move comes after X updated its Terms of Service to explicitly assert exclusive rights over the Twitter and Tweet trademarks, as well as the iconic bluebird logo. The revised terms, effective January 15, 2026, state that users have no right to use the X or Twitter names, trademarks, or logos without prior written consent.
The update follows a legal challenge from Operation Bluebird, a Virginia-based startup that filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office seeking rights to the “Twitter” trademark. The company argues that X abandoned the brand after the platform rebranded in 2023.
In its filing, Operation Bluebird cited a July 2023 post by Musk in which he said the platform would soon “bid adieu to the Twitter brand.” The startup claims that this statement, along with the rebrand to X, supports its case that the trademark is no longer in active use.
X updates its terms to lay claim to the ‘Twitter’ trademark after newcomer’s challenge https://t.co/JJLGj8hnmL
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) December 16, 2025In response, X has filed a countersuit to protect its ownership of the Twitter and Tweet trademarks. According to documents shared with TechCrunch by intellectual property law firm Gerben IP, the filing had not yet appeared in the PACER database at the time of reporting.
Operation Bluebird is led by a legal team that includes its founder, Michael Peroff, and Stephen Coates, a former Twitter trademark lawyer. The company has begun collecting sign-ups from potential users for a proposed social network under the Twitter handle. However, industry observers suggest the primary objective may be to secure control of the highly valuable trademark rather than to launch a competing platform.
Read: Startup Operation Bluebird Seeks to Cancel X’s ‘Twitter’ Trademarks
The updated Terms of Service mark a notable shift in X’s legal posture. Previous versions referenced only the X brand, while the new language clearly reintroduces Twitter into the platform’s protected intellectual property framework.
