So, it seems like the Twitter bird won’t be taking flight again after all, with Elon Musk’s X taking action to reaffirm its ownership of all Twitter trademarks, with a new update to its Terms of Service.
As reported by Ars Technica last week, a Virginia-based startup that’s calling itself “Operation Bluebird” recently filed a formal petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel X Corporation’s trademarks of the words “Twitter” and “tweet,” due to X essentially no longer using them, and abandoning the previous Twitter brand.
If successful in its bid, the group then plans to relaunch Twitter under a new host, in the hopes that a replica of the app, with the revived Twitter branding, will bring crowds flocking back.
Which seems like a questionable bet, but that’s the basis of the approach, with the group hoping that affinity with “Twitter” and the bird logo will be enough to kickstart a new business.
But as we noted, given his history of retaliatory actions, it seems unlikely that Elon Musk would give up those trademarks without a fight, especially to a potential X competitor.
As reported by TechCrunch, X has now revised Terms of Service, effective as of January 15, 2026, adding in the following statement:
“Nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use the X name or Twitter name or any of the X or Twitter trademarks, logos, domain names, other distinctive brand features, and other proprietary rights, and you may not do so without our express written consent.”
The addition here is “Twitter,” as this section used to only mention X.
And if retrospective revision of its terms (in preceding the trademark action) doesn’t work, X has also launched a countersuit, in which it states that the company continues to exclusively own the Twitter and Tweet trademarks and the bluebird logo.
Yeah, there was basically no way that Elon was going to allow someone else to blatantly capitalize on something that he owns. And while the whole Operation Bluebird project seems like a longshot either way (would people really sign-up to a new version of Twitter just because it looks like the Twitter of old?), it’s now likely dead in the water, before it even goes to the next stage of reclaiming the rights to the name and logo.
But then again, this is a group of IP lawyers, and they may well be prepared for the legal challenge. I mean, Elon has a small army of how own lawyers, and infinite resources to throw at the project, so that would also seem like an uphill battle, but maybe, there’s some legal loophole that will enable the Operation Bluebird team to continue to project.
Though probably not. The Operation Bluebird website has seemingly been taken offline, in response to this latest action from X.
I mean, if you really miss Twitter, Bluesky is probably the closest replica, in terms of format and functionality, while Threads is a more active alternative, with mostly the same features.
Those seem like your best bet, with this new update set to quash any future challenges to X’s Twitter ownership.
