Micro blogging site Twitter is suing Twittad, an advertising company, over the term ‘tweet.’ The company is pursuing this even though Twittad originally coined the term.
Back in 2009, Twitter has made a big deal about developers using the word ‘tweet’ in their apps. While the company has been trying to register ‘tweet’ as a trademark in the US, it has failed despite its efforts because its third-party developers filed the term before them.
Now, Twitter has moved on and filed a lawsuit against one of those developers, Twittad, in an attempt to block its registration of the “Let Your Ad Meet Tweets” trademark.
“It appears that Defendant has used LET YOUR AD MEET TWEETS solely as a generic phrase to refer advertising in connection with Twitter itself, and as such it is incapable of serving as a mark, rendering the registration subject cancellation on that ground,” Twitter wrote in its complaint. “Alternatively, if Defendant is able to establish use of LET YOUR AD MEET TWEETS as a mark, its registration is subject to cancellation based on Twitter’s preexisting rights in the TWEET mark.”
Twittad has claimed that they can use the term legally because they have successfully registered it in 2008, a time they feel that the term “tweet” will be used widely in the Twitter-verse.
Now, Twitter has suspended the @Twittad account and is now moving forward with the lawsuit.
via: Ubergizmo
