1 yr. ago • 97%

Elon may have a huge issue because Microsoft own the “X” trademark

futurism.com Elon May Have a Huge Issue Because Microsoft Owns the “X” Trademark

There's another big problem with Elon Musk's Twitter rebrand: Microsoft owns the trademark to the title "X." In a word: lol.

Technology @beehaw.org Elon May Have a Huge Issue Because Microsoft Owns the “X” Trademark

News @lemmy.world Elon May Have a Huge Issue Because Microsoft Owns the “X” Trademark

47 comments

Okay I can’t follow this anymore. There’s no way this isn’t some purposeful move to destroy twitter out of pettiness for being forced to buy it.

Has the guy received brain damage or something I’ve never seen a more spectacular dive into idiocy

64
- It's possible he's always been this much of an idiot and has only managed to succeed to where he is by sheer dumb luck and the principle of failing consistently upward.
  
  47
  
  This guy proves that being smart is not a prerequisite for being rich.
  
  21
  
  Well, he is known for buying successful companies only to run them down, this is not the last time.
  
  6
  
  If the Inspector Gadget went into entrepreneurship instead of the police force.
  
  4
- He has had this idea since his Paypal days.
  
  Man is just stuck in the 90s when everything was Xtreme!
  
  12
- I've always assumed the buyout attempt was to devalue it and cause it to fail, so I would say failure was the goal before the value wasn't able to be manipulated.
  
  4
  
  Um the buyout was at a fixed price early on. Devaluing accomplishes nothing.
  
  3
- It's probably losing a lot of money and he despises what twitter was (spreading the "woke mind-virus"), so if he can't make it a profitable Truth Social clone, he's going to kill it to cut his losses (in a "meme-able" way).
  
  3
- There had to have been an easier way without making himself look like a clown.
  
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And it looks like Meta owns it in the context of social networks.

61
- I didn't know about the police stopping them from taking down the sign. That kinda just ties a neat bow on this perfect shitshow.
  
  20
- That is embarrassingly stupid. I don't even think he's doing it on purpose unless he has some humiliation fetish or something. If I made even one mistake even close to that stupid I'd hand the reins to someone capable.
  
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- Excited for ThreadX
  
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  Xcited
  
  6
- As someone who doesn't understand trademarks, my interpretation would be that's just for the blue and white version. Is that incorrect?
  
  1
  
  No, the name "X" itself is trademarked in the context of a social media platform. The design of the logo is a different case. Though I'm not sure how solid of a case Meta has here because trademarking a single letter is a bit dubious.
  
  2
  
  I believe it would also extend to anything that can be confused with the white and blue logo in the context is social media.
  
  I can't take the Android droid logo, make him blue, give him a squiggly antenna, and then try to make him the logo of my new phone company.
  
  While Meta doesn't own the letter X, if the government says "People might get confused between these two marks" that's a valid reason to reject the trademark or prevent the company from calling itself that. See https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search/likelihood-confusion:
  
  Likelihood of confusion exists between trademarks when the marks are so similar and the goods and/or services for which they are used are so related that consumers would mistakenly believe they come from the same source. Each application is decided on its own facts, and no strict mechanical test exists for determining likelihood of confusion.
  
  So basically it would come down to a judge deciding if the marks are too similar to each other or not.
  
  To determine whether a likelihood of confusion exists, the marks are first examined for their similarities and differences. Note that in order to find a likelihood of confusion, the marks do not have to be identical. When marks sound alike when spoken, are visually similar, and/or create the same general commercial impression in the consuming public’s mind, the marks may be considered confusingly similar. Similarity in sound, appearance, and/or meaning may be sufficient to support a finding of likelihood of confusion, depending on the relatedness of the goods and/or services.
  
  So I could use something similar to the Android logo to sell fishing supplies, since the likelihood of confusion is small - Android doesn't make fishing supplies. We only have an issue if I start selling phones or if Android starts selling fishing supplies.
  
  2
Certainly trademark research would have...oh, right, It's Elon. He just decided to do it.

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- The fact that he also fired the legal department also doesn't bode well.
  
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  This dude will end up in jail. Mark my words.
  
  0
- Trademark research would require paying people. Can you imagine that? Shudders.
  
  At least you can always find designers who are happy to work for free. Sure, it might be just a Unicode character, but it has animated glitches tho. Those are cool.
  
  15
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Good thing Microsoft is not a litigious company

9
So jenius.

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- "I am so s m r t. I mean s m a r t."
  
  5
He just wants to get a trademark case in his favor so he can sue every algebra book publisher.

8
People have already mentioned X.org and Meta’s trademark but even Alphabet has an x.company moonshot.

7
- I think we inadvertently have given x.org the hug of death in the past few days... I don't think their server have seen so many people link to it at once.
  
  3
X.COM might also violate the right of the XCOM games...

7
- I hadn’t made that connection somehow. I’m kinda surprised XCOM never used X.COM for anything.
  
  3
  
  Yeah kinda sad they didn't.
  
  2
This reminds me of when Apple announced the iPhone and it turned out Linksys owned the iPhone name, and went through and slapped an 'iphone' sticker on all their IP telephones at the time.

5
Do you think he could just … twist the ends of the X a little bit to distinguish it?

Kind of like a swastika?

4
No clue what his endgame is but he obviously enjoys being a troll. I’d probably just stick to the rockets if I was him but that’s just me 🤷🏻‍♂️

3
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the Saudis finance the deal to buy Twitter? Given the platform was used extensively by protesters during the Arab Spring, would it be worth it to them to pay for Musk to destroy it?

1
- One Saudi holding (95% owned by a single dude) owns about 4%, so no, there isn't some nefarious Saudi plot here, Musk is just a fuck up.
  
  4
  
  More likely he wants it dead personally
  
  1
lmxo

1
Well Microsoft own the united states & everybodies soul there . So who cares about the about the X

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