X Corp. has initiated a lawsuit against Operation Bluebird, a newly announced startup that aims to revive the Twitter brand for a new social media platform. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, claims that Operation Bluebird is attempting to infringe upon Twitter’s trademarks, asserting that “Twitter never left and continues to be exclusively owned by X Corp.”
In response, Operation Bluebird recently submitted a petition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking to invalidate X Corp.’s ownership of the “Twitter” and “Tweet” trademarks, alleging that X Corp. “legally abandoned its rights” to these brands without an intention to resume their use. Concurrently, Operation Bluebird applied for the “Twitter” trademark for its planned site, Twitter.new.
X Corp. contends that its rebranding of the social media platform does not equate to abandoning trademark rights. The company points out that many users still refer to X as “Twitter” and to posts as “tweets.” Additionally, certain websites retain the Twitter bird icon when linking to X. X Corp. noted that, by December 11, 2025, over four million users accessed X via the “twitter.com” domain, which began redirecting to x.com last year.
Operation Bluebird has begun accepting reservations for account handles on its Twitter.new site. X Corp. claims that Bluebird is creating a misleading association between itself and X Corp. by utilizing similar logos, names, and color schemes reminiscent of Twitter.
X Corp. seeks a court order to prevent Operation Bluebird from using any trademarks associated with the Twitter brand, and also requests that the USPTO reject Bluebird’s trademark application. The company is also pursuing compensation for damages related to alleged copyright infringement.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben noted that X Corp. could have opted to challenge Operation Bluebird’s petition at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board instead of filing a lawsuit, suggesting the case highlights X Corp.’s unwillingness to relinquish the Twitter brand. Operation Bluebird has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/845882/x-corp-operation-bluebird-twitter-lawsuit-trademark-infringement