Reuters Speaks with Josh Gerben About Twitter’s Rebrand to X

Elon Musk recently announced his decision to rebrand Twitter to X. The company will have a long road to owning trademark registrations to protect the new brand.

Reuters spoke with Josh Gerben about the potential legal challenges the company could face in an attempt to protect the new brand with trademark registrations.

“There’s a 100% chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody,” said trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who said he counted nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that already cover the letter X in a wide range of industries.

Two major competitors, Meta and Microsoft already own federal trademark registrations for “X” trademarks around communications, software and social media.

According to Gerben, “Meta and Microsoft likely would not sue unless they feel threatened that Twitter’s X encroaches on brand equity they built in the letter.”

Source: Brittain, Blake. https://www.reuters.com. “Meta, Microsoft, hundred more own trademarks to new Twitter name”. 25 July 2023.