By: Aseem Gaurav on October 11, 2011
Popular micro-blogging website Twitter can finally own the “tweet” or “Tweet” trademark. They’ll be able to use the term legally as their own mark post the settlement with Twitter advertising company Twittad.
Talking about the settlement, James Eliason, CEO of Twittad, said that his company would transfer the registered trademark of “Tweet” to social media site in exchange for them dropping the lawsuit they filed against his company in September.
Few years back, Twittad obtained the registration of the word after making the most of its slogan “Let Your Ad Meet Tweets” for its company. But then Twitter filed a lawsuit against the company in a bid to force the company to cancel its trademark. The company even blocked Twittad’s Twitter account due to the dispute.
Twitter had applied for the same trademark in 2009, but USPTO rejected their application twice because of existing trademark and the ensuing disputes.
Since the issue has now been resolved, Twitter will once again restore Twittad’s account. It is still not clear how much money Twitter paid to the advertising firm, but some estimates suggest it to be hefty.
