Elon Musk’s recent move to rename Twitter as X might not be as straightforward as he hoped, as several companies, including Meta and Microsoft, already hold intellectual property rights to the same letter. The letter “X” is so extensively used and cited in trademarks that it could be subject to potential legal challenges, creating possible difficulties for the company formerly known as Twitter in defending its new X brand in the future.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben stated that there are nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations covering the letter X across various industries, making it highly likely that Twitter could face lawsuits over the rebranding.
In particular, Microsoft has owned an X trademark related to communications for its Xbox video-game system since 2003, while Meta Platforms, which offers the Threads platform as a Twitter competitor, holds a federal trademark registered in 2019 covering a blue-and-white letter “X” for software and social media fields.
Although Meta and Microsoft may not immediately sue, they could take action if they perceive Twitter’s X brand as a threat to their established brand equity associated with the letter X.
Both Twitter and the aforementioned companies did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
It’s worth noting that Meta itself encountered intellectual property challenges during its own name change from Facebook, facing trademark lawsuits filed by investment firm Metacapital and virtual-reality company MetaX, along with resolving another dispute over its new infinity-symbol logo.
If Musk’s rebranding of Twitter to X succeeds, other entities might still seek to claim ownership of the letter “X” for themselves.
Trademark attorney Douglas Masters from the law firm Loeb & Loeb highlighted that protecting a single letter, especially one as commercially popular as “X,” can be challenging. He suggested that Twitter’s protection might be limited to very similar graphics to their X logo, as the logo itself lacks distinctiveness.
Previously, Insider reported that Meta held an X trademark, and lawyer Ed Timberlake mentioned that Microsoft also had a similar trademark.
