Until 2006 the word 'tweet' was the noise a bird made, and no more. Now, though, a 'tweet' refers to a message written on the 100 million-strong micro-blogging site Twitter and the company is laying claim to the word under trademark.

However, Twitter has run into a problem as the word 'tweet' is already owned by an advertising firm called Twittad in the slightly jarring phrase 'Let Your Ad Meet Tweets'.

So, like any self-respecting US company, Twitter is suing Twittad. Specifically, it is going after the firm for a violation of a trademark that Twitter argues it should own as it is clearly the reason the term is popular, citing 'retweet' and 'tweetdeck' as evidence.

"This action arises from the registration of the mark 'Let Your Ad Meet Tweets' by Twittad in connection with online advertising services for use on Twitter," the suit reads.

"Defendant's registration unfairly exploits the widespread association by the consuming public of the mark 'tweet' with Twitter, and threatens to block Twitter from its registration and legitimate uses of its own mark."

Such litigiousness over a word previously associated with twitchers such as Bill Oddie is not the first time that tech firms have gone at it over some words. Apple famously lost a preliminary injunction case against Amazon over the term 'app store'.

Sky Broadcasting also tried to take on Skype over the use of the word 'Sky' in its name.

It appears that the lawyers of Silicon Valley are prepared to scour the dictionary from morning to night looking for more words over which they can suggest their client has dominion.

Social networking firm Facebook has gathered journalists at its Palo Alto headquarters today for a major announcement rumoured to be a tie up with Skype.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg set the rumour mill into overdrive last week when he revealed that the firm would announce something "awesome" on Wednesday.

Some have guessed that it could be the launch of a dedicated iPad application, but it is more likely that Zuckerberg will announce some kind of deal with Skype which could give Facebook users the ability to make VoIP calls from the site.

The event is set to kick off in the next few minutes and we will be live blogging here:

0947 The world's press is currently camped out in the Facebook parking lot waiting to get into the event - good thing Silicon Valley is sunny today. It's looking like the start will be delayed until 1015, news that has The Wall Street Journal and others freaking out. Never travel without a wireless hotspot.

1005 We're in the building at least. Currently hanging out in the canteen waiting for the show to kick off. Hoping Skype will be here for questions, it could be a very interesting Q&A.

1015 Zuck takes the stage. This event starts the 2011 launch season, lots of fun stuff to announce in next weeks and months.

1017 Social networking at inflection point. For past five years talk has been around connecting people. That's interesting, but until recently there was an open question whether social networking would be mass-market. That chapter is done, he said.

1019 Past five years have been about user growth. Next five years will be about social applications. The leading companies are developing for social selling. No-one measures internet success in user numbers, so why should it for social networking?

1021 Sharing is exploding. People are sharing twice what they were last year, and will double sharing annually. It's not just a Facebook phenomenon; it's across the whole internet.

1022 Facebook now at 750 million users, but numbers aren't important. Moore's Law applies to sharing, so Facebook is looking ahead.

1028 Whole host of sharing apps coming up this year, with three today. First off, group chat in Groups that can be started on the fly. Secondly a new chat design, and finally the expected video calling.

1031 Video chat developed with Skype. No need to download Skype to use it, can download software in 10 seconds when calling via Facebook. No group video calls. Zuckerberg says Facebook will focus on the infrastructure and let third parties develop the apps. "Independent entrepreneurs will always be better than a company trying to do a million things." A not so subtle dig at Google.

1036 Video demo. There's a single click on the chat box and it fires up the video. Quality looks good, excellent frame rate but you'd expect that for a demo. Certainly looks smooth - hope I can block people.

1041 Tony Bates, chief executive of Skype, on stage. At peak times video calling accounts for majority of Skype traffic, and now averaging 300 million minutes a day. Skype has done the PC and mobile, now moving to social. May add paid services later.

1043 Zuckerberg wrapping up. Expect a lot more like this over the next few months and years. Now onto the Q&A.

1045 The inevitable question on Google+. He's ducked it. Well, he would wouldn't he.

1048 Skype getting questions on how this helps the company. Bates says they want a billion users, and this grows their services.

1053 Network load should not be too heavy. Skype app is a mini-client embedded in Facebook, and shouldn't overload the network. Zuckerberg says Facebook will build more datacentres.

1054 Facebook has a really good relationship with Microsoft. Having Skype owned by Microsoft gives stability for the future and makes it easy to partner. We've worked with Microsoft on Bing and host of other issues, says Zuckerberg.  

1058 It's all about sharing, Zuckerberg concludes. Applications are the biggest driver for this, then mobile and Groups very much last. The new changes should alter that, one supposes. Now off to try to get the questions answered that weren't covered. Signing off, and a full report on the news page coming soon.

The battle for hearts and minds in the video communications space continues to heat up, after news emerged that Google plans to add video chat within Chrome.

Henrik Andreasson, a Google programmer, explained in a blog post that it would be possible to build video-chat tools into Chrome by offering full support for the Web Real Time Communications (RTC) standard in the browser.

"We are working hard to provide full RTC support in Chrome all the way from WebKit down to the native audio and video parts," he said.

"When we are done, any web developer shall be able to create RTC applications, like the Google Talk client in Gmail, without using any plug-ins but only WebRTC components that runs in the sandbox."

The idea of making video calls directly through the browser is certainly appealing, removing the need for add-ons and plug-ins of which many are unaware or unsure, and instead putting the power to call straight into the hands of the end user.

Cisco, Skype/Microsoft and others are all promoting their own video technologies, and the key issue will remain interoperability. No-one will buy or use a system if they can't chat to someone else using a different operating system, browser or even telepresence unit.

On this point, an earlier blog post by Google engineering director Rian Liebenberg detailing the launch of the WebRTC code, said the company would talk with other browser manufacturers and standards bodies to ensure they could interoperate.

"We'll be working closely with other browser developers such as Mozilla and Opera to implement this technology for use by the broader web community," he said.

"In addition, we've collectively engaged with the standards communities such as IETF and W3C working groups to define and implement a set of standards for real-time communications."

So, your mum ringing up for a face-to-face chat while you're surfing the web in your underpants? Get ready, it's going to happen ...

VoIP firm Skype has announced new integration functionality with Facebook that will allow users to send and view instant messages to and from their social networking contacts directly from their desktop client.

Skype 5.5 Beta for Windows is now available to download. The application boasts a dedicated Facebook Contacts Tab, which enables users to see their social network friends list, as well as a News Feed so users can easily “like” their friends' status on Facebook without logging into site.

Improvements have also been made to Skype’s Call Phones section in the new client, making it easier for users to save any phone numbers they dial.

Microsoft decided to buy Skype for $8.5bn in May and today the deal was given approval to go ahead by the US Federal Trade Commission.

Microsoft will now start integrating assets from the VoIP provider with the rest of its business, while continuing to run Skype as a separate business division.

Under Microsoft’s leadership, the relationship between Facebook and Skype is only likely to improve.

Last October, Microsoft announced it would partner with Facebook to make search more social by allowing Bing users to see what their social networking contacts “like” in their search results.

Qi Lu, president of Microsoft's Online Services division, said at the time more tools and technologies would be released in the future as a result of the partnership.

Before Microsoft stepped in, Facebook was initially rumoured to be a potential buyer of Skype, so it will be no great surprise to see the two rolling out more functionality in the future designed to integrate the two services even more.