A scrappy startup is looking to claim the Twitter name as their own from Elon Musk’s company X, claiming the social media giant gave up its rights to the branding when they changed its name and dropped the iconic bird logo in 2023.

Operation Bluebird is looking to revive Twitter, petitioning the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week to cancel X Corp.’s ownership of the “Twitter” and “Tweet” trademarks, arguing Mr. Musk abandoned them when he rebranded the platform to X.

The startup alleges X “legally abandoned its rights” to the Twitter brand “with no intention to resume use” — and goes further, accusing the company of committing “fraud on the USPTO through the filing of false statements and declarations.”

Operation Bluebird is led by Michael Peroff, an Illinois trademark attorney, and Stephen Coates, a trademark attorney with direct experience at Twitter. Mr. Coates served as Twitter’s associate director of trademarks, domain names, and marketing from 2014 to 2016. The startup has also filed its own trademark application for “Twitter” and plans to launch a new social media site called Twitter.new.

“We have built a social platform that will look familiar to those that used legacy Twitter, but with new tools that provide a safer experience and empower the user to decide what types of content they engage in,” Mr. Coates said to The Verge.

X has until February to respond to the petition. If the company decides to fight back, the battle over the “Twitter” trademarks could drag on for years.

“It could take two, three years just to get through the trial process and another couple of years for the trademark office to make a ruling,” intellectual property attorney Douglas Masters said to the Verge, adding his doubt that Operation Bluebird would be successful.

“I don’t know that the record ultimately will show that even though they [X Corp.] switched to X, that they intended to give up all of their commercial use and rights in the word Twitter.”

Operation Bluebird doesn’t seem fazed by the prospect of a drawn-out legal fight.

“We believe our position is very strong,” Mr. Coates said. 

“X Corp. could escalate this away from the trademark office and to court, but we are ready to fight.”