Twitter Rebrand to 'X' Fraught With Permit, Trademark Issues

Earlier Sunday, owner Elon Musk revealed his plans to rebrand Twitter to “X,” then detailing that tweets will be known as “Xs.”

The social media platform that was until recently known as Twitter is removing the company’s old name from signage at its San Francisco Market Street headquarters.

Local media outlets saw the first five letters of the Twitter sign removed, with just the “ER” remaining at the time of most recent reports. The letters were taken down and collected on the ground at around 12:45 p.m. local time.

However, work stopped around 12:50 p.m. due to confusion about the work permit. Police said an individual working for Twitter had a work order but failed to properly report it to the building security and the building’s owner, prompting police to temporarily stop work.

“Officers assigned to Tenderloin Station responded to the area of 10th and Market streets regarding a report of a possible unpermitted street closure,” a police spokesperson told local media. “Through their investigation, officers were able to determine that no crime was committed and this incident was not a police matter.”

Company owner Elon Musk began the rebranding of Twitter to X almost as soon as he announced it over the weekend. Musk asked fans to design a new logo for him, eventually picking one that he said would “certainly" be "refined.”

Later Sunday night, the logo began appearing in place of the social media site’s iconic bird logo for some users on some platforms. While the old Twitter branding remains for some users on some platforms, Musk promised in a Tweet (or an “X”) that the old branding would soon be gone completely.

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk wrote.

Musk also changed his profile picture and the profile picture of the official “Twitter” account to the site’s new logo. X.com also now redirects to Twitter.com.

X users responded to the delayed signage removal and the rebrand in general with a mix of mocking and indifference, while others took the opportunity to dunk on the city of San Francisco.

So they X'ed it

— Raul Pudd (@BubbaAndBean12) July 24, 2023

Why is SFPD going after permitting and not car jackings and break-ins?

— RG (@Tesla_GTownTX) July 24, 2023

this feels like a good analogy for how the launch went in general 🤔

— Permissionless II (@Permissionless) July 24, 2023

Trademark Issues

At present, there is also a question of whether the “X” branding is even available for Musk to use for social media sites.

Both Microsoft and Meta* hold trademarks of “X.” The Meta patent lists the service as potentially “providing interactive websites featuring technology that enable online users to create personal profiles” that users can use “for broadcasting, transmitting, receiving, accessing, viewing, uploading, downloading, sharing, integrating, encoding, decoding, displaying, formatting, organizing, storing, caching, transferring and streaming of data, text, games, game content, digital media, images, music, audio, video and animations.” Another listed use for the Meta trademark of X includes “online social networking services.”

Microsoft’s patent, first filed in 2002, lists “on-line chatrooms” and “electronic bulletin boards” for users to share messages about video games and an online video game storefront.

Both patents, particularly the Meta one, which seems related to a social media site, could cause legal problems for Musk, who has been in an online feud with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Musk has threatened to sue Meta for launching an X competitor called “Threads” and the two floated a potential cage fight being aired on Pay-Per-View.

*Meta and its platforms are banned in Russia for extremist activities.