There might be several legal hurdles for Billionaire Elon Musk’s decision to rebrand Twitter as X as companies including Meta and Microsoft already have intellectual property rights to the same letter.
According to a Reuters report, there are nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations already using the letter “X.”
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben suggests that there is a high likelihood that Twitter will be sued over this rebranding decision, given the number of existing trademarks using the letter “X.” Meta and Microsoft might not immediately sue, but they could take legal action if they feel their brand equity associated with the letter “X” is threatened by Twitter’s new use of the same letter.
On Monday, Musk announced rebranding Twitter as X while also unveiling a new logo for the social media platform. The new logo is a black-and-white version of the letter.
Microsoft has owned an “X” trademark related to communications for its Xbox video-game system since 2003. On the other hand, Meta Platforms, the company behind Threads, a Twitter rival, owns a federal trademark registered in 2019 that covers a blue-and-white letter “X” for fields including software and social media.
Meta and Microsoft likely would not sue unless they feel threatened that Twitter’s X encroaches on brand equity they built in the letter, Gerben says.
It’s worth noting that Meta faced intellectual property challenges itself when it changed its name from Facebook. It had trademark lawsuits filed against it by investment firm Metacapital and virtual-reality company MetaX, and also settled another lawsuit over its new infinity-symbol logo.
If Elon Musk succeeds in rebranding Twitter as “X,” there could still be potential for others to claim rights to the letter “X” for themselves, leading to further legal complexities and disputes.