Twitter will get ‘tweet’ trademark


11 Oct 2011

Twitter will soon get the registered trademark for the word “tweet” after a settlement was made with Twittad, which will transfer the trademark to the social networking company.

The Wall Street Journal reports that James Eliason, CEO of Twittad, said Twitter will drop the lawsuit it filed last month against his company in return.

Eliason did not say if Twitter paid Twittad for the trademark, as there is a confidentiality agreement between both companies.

Twittad, which helps its network of 27,000 Twitter users get paid to tweet advertisements on Twitter, will see its Twitter account restored, too.

Twitter sued Twittad for its ‘tweet’ trademark, which was used for its company’s strapline: “Let your ad meet tweets.”

Twitter believed this exploited the widespread association of the word ‘tweet’ with Twitter and said Twittad blocked it from registering the word.

It also said the use of the word in the strapline refers to advertising connected with Twitter, and thus could not be capable of serving a trademark.

Twitter also noted the ‘tweet’ mark was previously only known as relating to birdsong and had no association with social networking or communications services.