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Elon Musk\u2019s X is updating its Terms of Service to indicate it still lays claim to the \u201cTwitter\u201d trademark. The move to add this detail to the company\u2019s terms follows an announcement<\/a> from a Virginia-based startup, which recently filed an application to trademark the term \u201cTwitter.\u201d <\/p>\n The startup, Operation Bluebird, claims that X had abandoned the brand \u201cTwitter\u201d by renaming its social networking service \u201cX.\u201d In its petition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filed on December 2, the startup pointed to a post from X owner Musk on July 23, 2023, which proclaimed that the social network would soon \u201cbid adieu to the twitter brand.\u201d<\/p>\n X is now challenging that claim with a countersuit<\/a> of its own. (A copy of the filing was shared with TechCrunch via IP trademark law firm Gerben IP<\/a>). In the filing, X says that it continues to exclusively own the Twitter and Tweet trademarks and the bluebird logo. <\/p>\n Since filing its petition<\/a> for cancellation, Operation Bluebird has been collecting potential user sign-ups for its own social network at a website named Twitter.new. The effort is headed up<\/a> by two lawyers, including founder Michael Peroff,<\/a> based in Illinois, and Stephen Coates<\/a>, previously a trademark lawyer at Twitter. Given their backgrounds, their assertion that they plan to launch a new service to rival X seems dubious. It\u2019s more likely they want to acquire the trademark, which has value of its own. <\/p>\n