A startup from Virginia Calling itself Operation Bluebird, this week announced that it has filed a formal petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, asking the federal agency to cancel X Corporation's trademarks for the words “Twitter” and “tweet” as X has allegedly abandoned them.
“The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.'s products, services and marketing, effectively abandoning the legendary brand with no intention of resuming use of the brand,” the petition said. “The TWITTER bird was on the ground.”
If successful, two of the group's leaders told Ars, Operation Bluebird would launch a social network called Twitter.new, possibly as early as the end of next year. (Twitter.new has created a working prototype and is already inviting users to reserve accounts.)
Neither X Corporation nor its owner Elon Musk immediately responded to Ars Technica's request for comment.
Michael Peroff, an Illinois attorney and founder of Operation Bluebird, said more Twitter-like social media networks have emerged or gained traction in the intervening years, such as Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky. But none have the size or brand recognition that Twitter had before Musk's acquisition.
“There are certainly alternatives,” Peroff said. “I don't know if any of them are at a scale right now that would make a difference in the national conversation, whereas a new Twitter really could.”
Similarly, Peroff's business partner, Stephen Coates, a lawyer who previously served as Twitter's general counsel, said Operation Bluebird aims to recreate some of the magic Twitter once had.
“I remember a while ago I had celebrities comment on my content on Twitter during the Super Bowl or events,” he told Ars. “And we want that experience to come back, that whole town square, in which we are all intertwined.”
Could it work?
Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion. Ultimately, he changed Twitter's corporate name and brand identity to X. That decision, Operation Bluebird says, created an opening for formally abandoning the Twitter name.
In July 2023, Musk himself tweeted that “we will say goodbye to the Twitter brand, and gradually all the birds.”
That's when Peroff, a Chicago attorney specializing in trademark and IP law, saw an opportunity to not only claim the Twitter name, but also use the iconic illustrated logo affectionately known internally as “Larry Bird.”
