Elon Musk’s X Lands In Trademark Clash With Social Media Agency
Illustration 284989046 © Olena Churilova | Dreamstime.com
X, formerly Twitter, is the latest social media platform to get entangled in trademarked territory following a rebrand (Meta, too, swooped up a string of lawsuits contesting its name and infinity symbol logo).
With a name like X, the company is, admittedly, playing with fire. Per trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who often surfaces branding disputes online, there were almost 900 active registrations for the ‘X’ trademark in the US at the time of the Twitter relaunch.
So, it was only a matter of time before the consequences caught up with the Elon Musk-owned “everything app.” That time is now, as the company is being sued by a Florida-based social media advertising agency called X Social Media. Represented, interestingly, by Gerben’s law firm, X Social Media says it decided to take action after a cease and desist sent to Twitter’s doors in August came back with a refusal.
Le sigh pic.twitter.com/08w3tAST9h
— Paul Lesko (@Paul_Lesko) October 2, 2023
X Social Media specializes in helping clients market themselves on Facebook and Instagram. In its complaint, it also identified itself as the 159th fastest-growing private enterprise in the US according to the Inc. 500 list in 2020, establishing itself as a high-performing company with promise.
The advertising firm argued that its branding had been in use “exclusively and continuously” since 2018, making the trademark incontestable.
To be clear, the two logos are markedly different, with X Social Media’s monogram depicting a stick figure holding out a pair of scales. The agency explained that its “distinctive and dominant letter” represents “the beginning of a life-changing journey towards justice,” as it started out with a focus on mass torts.
Posted by X Social Media on Wednesday, September 13, 2023
In spite of the dissimilarities between the logos, X Social Media asserted that Musk’s X mark comes in violation of its own since they’re both registered under the “social media, business data, promotion and advertising, business consulting, market research services, and advertising services” categories.
X Social Media added that X’s rebrand has caused “serious irreparable harm” to the agency, resulting in a loss in revenue. Further, X Corp.’s ascension in Google Search results has shoved the brand further down. It proclaimed that X Corp was a “willful” infringer who should have known to practice due diligence so as not to co-opt other brands.
[via B&T and TechCrunch, images via various sources]
