Twitter Twits’ “Tweet” Trademark Travesty

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 by Andy Beal

Twitter Twits’ “Tweet” Trademark Travesty

I love Twitter. I’ve also personally met co-founder Biz Stone, and he’s a great guy. That said, it does appear that they’ve strayed from their normal play book and are instead reading from the lesser-known Clue(less) Train Manifesto.

If bad news comes in threes, let’s hope that the recent DDoS attack, directional blindness, and today’s trademark faux pas, complete Twitter’s trifecta of incompetence.

After scaring the snot out of Twitter application developers–with its announced plans to trademark the term "tweet"–it now seems that the USPTO has rejected the application. It appears that at least three other companies submitted their "tweet" trademark applications before Twitter, and as Sam Johnston succinctly puts it…

…Twitter has a snowflake’s chance in hell of securing a monopoly over the word "Tweet"

Hmm, I’ve not seen too many snowflakes in hell recently, have you?

But honestly, it’s probably for the best that Twitter didn’t get its way with "tweet." After all, Twitter users and developers have been using the term for years now, and Twitter really should have filed its application a lot earlier.

To be fair, Twitter’s not the only social network to suffer growing pains such as these, but let’s hope that the company is now over its "awkward" years.

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5 comments on “Twitter Twits’ “Tweet” Trademark Travesty”

Luci Says:

August 20th, 2009 at 12:07 pm

no, not many snowflakes, or cats, nor flying pigs or blue moons! Sounds like Twitter probably thought they’d ‘wait and see’ how ‘tweet-ing’ took off, and “unfortunately” it took off a lot faster than anyone could have imagined, leaving issues like copyright in the dust.

Tweet’s a common word now, and i think it should stay that way
Luci´s last blog ..How Can The New Social Media Help Your SEO?
Sam Johnston Says:

August 20th, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Andy,

Thanks for your entertaining coverage of the situation – here’s the next instalment:

“Twitter” Trademark in Trouble Too
http://samj.net/2009/08/twitter-trademark-in-trouble-too.html

Sam
Sam Johnston´s last blog .."Twitter" Trademark in Trouble Too
Andy Beal Says:

August 20th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

@Sam – interesting, thanks for sharing!
twitter Says:

August 21st, 2009 at 8:04 am

Thanks for the photo! Definately the count that counts I liked the bird pic.
twitter Says:

August 21st, 2009 at 8:16 am

How useful that there’s an index, so I can read your contributions! Liked it.

Marketing Pilgrim