Twitter sues Twittad over 'tweet' trademark

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.

12 Sep 2011