The move by billionaire Elon Musk to redesign Twitter as X may present legal challenges because firms like Microsoft and Meta already hold intellectual property rights to the same letter. X is a possibility for legal disputes due to its extensive use and trademark citations.
The business once known as Twitter might later have trouble justifying its X brand. The letter X is covered by almost 900 active U.S. trademark registrations across numerous industries.
The issues of X
On Monday, Musk changed the name of Twitter to X and introduced a new logo for the social media site that has an altered black-and-white rendition of the letter.
If another brand would confuse consumers, trademark owners could sue for infringement. You can seek remedies by suing for monetary damages or by forbidding use. Microsoft has owned the X trademark for communications relating to its Xbox video gaming console since 2003.
- Elon Musk’s Twitter redesign may raise legal challenges.
- Microsoft owns the X trademark for the Xbox console and seeks infringement remedies.
- Meta faces intellectual property disputes with MetaX and Metacapital.
A federal trademark owned by Meta Platforms, a new Twitter competitor with its Threads platform, depicts a blue-and-white letter “X” for sectors including software and social media. 2019 saw the registration of this trademark.
Unless they feel worried that Twitter’s X infringes on the brand equity they developed in the letter, Meta and Microsoft are unlikely to file a lawsuit.
When Meta changed its name from Facebook, it ran into issues with intellectual property. It is facing trademark claims from virtual reality business MetaX and investment firm Metacapital since last year, and it has already settled one of those disputes over its new infinity-symbol emblem. Others could still claim the moniker “X” for themselves if Musk is successful in changing it.
