Is Twitter’s ‘Tweet’ Trademark at Risk?

[Anonymous]

Is Twitter's 'Tweet' Trademark at Risk?
By Scott Martin

SAN FRANCISCO — Will the word "tweet" become too conversational to remain in Twitter's nest of protectable trademarks?

The startup based here raised the question in regulatory documents that became available on Thursday.

Twitter said there is a risk that one or more of its trademarks could become generic, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, Twitter said its trademarks run the risk of being declared invalid or unenforceable.

"There is a risk that the word 'Tweet' could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with any short comment posted publicly on the Internet, and if this happens, we could lose protection of this trademark," Twitter noted in its filing.

Twitter has made its entry into the Merriam-Webster dictionary already with the word "tweet," defined as "a post made on the Twitter online message service."

What remains to be seen is how widely used the word Tweet becomes and whether it gets introduced into the general lexicon as a verb. If companies begin to use Tweet as a verb in generic reference to their products, Twitter's trademark protections may come in question.

"I suspect 'Twitter' might eventually fall into the "xerox" category — but not for a long time. In Internet time, that is. Even if it does, I don't see any long-term problems for Twitter itself," says Michael Barclay, a fellow with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former patent attorney with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Xerox, of course, has been accepted into language use as verb to generically mean "to copy" and is defined in dictionaries as a verb. The company Xerox has refused to use the word as a verb in its own marketing and has waged advertising campaigns against the use of Xerox as a verb.

Twitter states in its prospectus that "Twitter," "tweet," "retweet" and its bird logo are the property of the company.

Twitter's warning concerning its trademarks is part of a standard precaution companies take in stating their risk factors when filing to go public.

Is Twitter's 'Tweet' Trademark at Risk?
By Scott Martin

SAN FRANCISCO — Will the word "tweet" become too conversational to remain in Twitter's nest of protectable trademarks?

The startup based here raised the question in regulatory documents that became available on Thursday.

Twitter said there is a risk that one or more of its trademarks could become generic, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, Twitter said its trademarks run the risk of being declared invalid or unenforceable.

"There is a risk that the word 'Tweet' could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with any short comment posted publicly on the Internet, and if this happens, we could lose protection of this trademark," Twitter noted in its filing.

Twitter has made its entry into the Merriam-Webster dictionary already with the word "tweet," defined as "a post made on the Twitter online message service."

What remains to be seen is how widely used the word Tweet becomes and whether it gets introduced into the general lexicon as a verb. If companies begin to use Tweet as a verb in generic reference to their products, Twitter's trademark protections may come in question.

"I suspect 'Twitter' might eventually fall into the "xerox" category — but not for a long time. In Internet time, that is. Even if it does, I don't see any long-term problems for Twitter itself," says Michael Barclay, a fellow with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former patent attorney with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Xerox, of course, has been accepted into language use as verb to generically mean "to copy" and is defined in dictionaries as a verb. The company Xerox has refused to use the word as a verb in its own marketing and has waged advertising campaigns against the use of Xerox as a verb.

Twitter states in its prospectus that "Twitter," "tweet," "retweet" and its bird logo are the property of the company.

Twitter's warning concerning its trademarks is part of a standard precaution companies take in stating their risk factors when filing to go public.

[Author]

October 8, 2013 at 8:55 AM