C3 Patent and Intellectual Property Law

Sep012009 | Steve O'Donnell

Twitter Trademark Fail Whale

As reported across the tech and trademark newsites, the same day that Twitter announced to the world that it was seeking trademark protection for the term “tweet” they received news that the US Patent and Trademark Office had tentatively shot down their application. So what happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening to your business?

At some point in time, Twitter users began using the term “Tweets” to refer to individual posts and “ReTweets” to refer to forwarded messages. Twitter has a large number of devotees, and many of them have started their own Twitter-related services. Since “Tweet” has become associated, almost synonymous, with Twitter, it was obvious that some of these services would latch onto the term “Tweet.”

At least three of these Twitter-related services: TweetMarks, Cotweet, and Tweetphoto are a little faster on the draw than Twitter and began the trademark registration procedure before Twitter. As the Patent and Trademark Office noted in its response to Twitter, those applications may prevent Twitter from registering “Tweet” because of the possibility of a consumer confusion.

Now, the process isn't over yet, Twitter can try to convince the Patent and Trademark Office that there won't be consumer confusion or they can approach the other companies and try to strike a deal that will let everyone use the term “Tweet,” how well that will go is anyone's guess. The fact remains that Twitter sat on their hands while others trademarked “Tweet” out from under them and now it may be too late.

Remember, the early bird gets the worm. If something like a word, graphic, or slogan becomes attached to your business, take the measures necessary to protect it as soon as possible.

3D Fail Whale used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Comments

Post has no comments.

---

Post a Comment

Name (optional)

Website (optional)

Email Address (optional)

Please fill in the text in the image in the box below

Your comment