Musk loses: Start-up allowed to use Twitter logo and term “Tweet”

Elon Musk’s X Corporation retains the rights to the name “Twitter”, but a judge has provisionally found that its rights to the term “Tweet” and the platform’s blue bird logo have lapsed.

The ruling follows Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October 2022. Six months later, he renamed the short-messaging service X as part of an effort to build an “Everything app” modeled on China’s WeChat.

The rebranding also targeted Twitter’s familiar blue bird logo. That change later became the basis for a legal dispute after the start-up Operation Bluebird saw an opportunity and announced in December 2025 that it would launch a new network called Twitter.