A few weeks ago, James Eliason, CEO of Twittad, indicated that Twitter’s battle for ownership of the “tweet” trademark may finally have come to an end. According to Eliason, Twitter would drop a trademark lawsuit it filed against his company that sought to nullify Twittad’s registered trademark of the word “tweet.” In return, Twittad would transfer its registered trademark of “tweet” to Twitter, he said.Eliason declined to say whether Twitter paid Twittad, citing a confidentiality agreement between the companies. But it’s probably a good bet that money exchanged hands, given the value of the mark to Twitter.
“We’ve arrived at a resolution with Twittad that recognizes consistent use of Tweet while supporting the continued success of Twitter ecosystem partners like Twittad,” Twitter spokeswoman Lynn Fox said in a statement.
Eliason said Twitter would restore Twittad’s account on Twitter so that it can resume business. Twittad helps a network of 27,000 other Twitter users to get paid to tweet advertisements on Twitter. Eliason also indicated Twittad would continue to use its original tagline: “Let your ad meet tweets.”
As we discussed in a previous blog post last month, the USPTO had suspended Twitter’s trademark applications because other companies, including Twittad, had applied to trademark various versions of the mark before Twitter did. As a result, Twitter filed the California trademark lawsuit against Twittad, arguing that “tweet” was already “famous” as a Twitter term before rivals filed trademark applications, making Twitter the mark’s rightful owner.
“The moral of the story is to make sure you trademark and patent-protect everything,” said Eliason, 32 years old.
We could not have said it better…
Source: Wall Street Journal
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