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Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

tsdr.uspto.gov

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Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#81

Post by gerdesj »

This is getting out of hand. X: is it "ecs" or "chi" ... and that's only the Latin and Greek alphabets.

https://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn76041368&docI...

... shows a u/c Latin X with serifs. However the current "status" shows the Mark as: X ie sans-serif.

Is there a difference with respect to a trademark, in the US, between X avec au sans serif? You obviously can't trademark something drawn from the commons - so the letter X itself is probably out of bounds unless you use it in an innovative way.

To become a trademark, you need to innovate in some way ... be distinctive. X ie two short lines crossing at their mid point at an angle between 30 and 45 degrees (can easily be made more formal) defines ... x.

The original filing seems to define X with embellishments (serifs). The current Status implies X without embellishments. Also, the original depiction is pixelated and the L to R stroke is thicker than the R to L stroke.

Its all a bit woolly

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#82

Post by arcticbull »

CydeWeys wrote: post #69
kibwen wrote: post #19

According to this one: https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87980831&caseType=SERIAL_... , it seems to be Meta that owns the trademark for X, for about a zillion application domains; expand the "Goods and Services" expando and see for yourself. EDIT: The last one in the list is in regard to this domain: > Online social networking services; online social networking services, namely, facilitating social introductions or…

Lots of people/companies own a trademark on X. It's a very common TM. I mean it is a single letter after all!

Absolutely, but. If Microsoft owns it in the context of social media, that changes everything.

Sure there's a Delta Airlines and a Delta Faucets. If I wanted to start Delta Carpentry of Iowa that wouldn't be an issue. However, if I bought Alaska Airlines, woke up tomorrow and rebranded it Delta - you can be sure they'd fly their lawyers out to Anchorage out on a Gulfstream.

[edit] Meta -> Microsoft, from tfa. My bad.

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#83

Post by antonvs »

arcticbull wrote: post #73
TX81Z wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, he’s not. He’s something so much better than that we don’t even have a word for it. He is a human singularity, I can’t believe we get to be alive on this earth at the same time as this man.

"In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness." - Jack Dorsey, April 25, 2022. Certainly nobody can deny Elon is solving for the problem of Twitter being a company.

> I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness."

If only we could convert bullshit to energy, we'd need just a handful of these billionaire luminaries to solve the world's energy needs.

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#85

Post by NathanKP »

nickstinemates wrote: post #65
TX81Z wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon had this planned out from the start, 50 steps ahead. Make an outrageously high bid on a site with no consistent profit, try desperately to get out of the deal, and fail (as a misdirection of course), alienate power users, kill 50% of revenue, totally nuke site reliability, lose all the top talent, and of course, rack up a pile of lawsuits a mile deep. And only THEN, blow everybody’s mind by jettisoning a brand s…

Wait - how does he simultaneously bid on a site with "no revenue" and then "kill 50% of it." If the revenue was meaningless then killing half of it shouldn't matter. If it wasn't meaningless then the "no revenue" comment makes no sense. Which is it?

Grandparent comment probably meant to say "no profit" instead of "no revenue". But yeah killing half of your revenue when you aren't even making profit yet is probably a bad idea.

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#86

Post by valianteffort »

KerrAvon wrote: post #76
api wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m starting to just feel sad because I’m suspecting serious cognitive decline or mental illness. At this point it’s just watching someone have a crisis.

It's true that the need for all of this right-wing adulation didn't really blow up until Grimes left him for a trans person, but he was always this person. Ask Peter Thiel. Remember, the entire point of this X exercise is revenge on people who wronged him at PayPal (where he demonstrated total incompetence at managing software projects and people). He's going to show them, dammit. He's going to show all of them!

[flagged]

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#87

Post by s1artibartfast »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #53
TX81Z wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon had this planned out from the start, 50 steps ahead. Make an outrageously high bid on a site with no consistent profit, try desperately to get out of the deal, and fail (as a misdirection of course), alienate power users, kill 50% of revenue, totally nuke site reliability, lose all the top talent, and of course, rack up a pile of lawsuits a mile deep. And only THEN, blow everybody’s mind by jettisoning a brand s…

Because I need to vent... I dreamt this morning that I was berating ElMo for being off his meds and making billion-dollar decisions while in manic phase. For months. I'm actually pretty annoyed that I would even dream about it. I detest the expression, but this is a perfect example of "living rent-free in someone's head". I need to get off the internet.

It's fascinating how people can't just ignore Elon, especially the people that don't even use/like Twitter.

Life is a lot easier if you just think "I don't care about" this and scroll past. Yet here we are, as I understanding the trademark to X will somehow matter in our personal lives or make us happy

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#88

Post by hsjqllzlfkf »

snoochyboochies wrote: post #72

I have no idea of the legalities of this. Personally, I feel the rebrand of Twitter to X was a pretty dumb move. However like most discourse nowadays, I can't trust a single take on any of this. It's all predictably far more political than fact-based in a sort of self-fulfilling, postmodern, prophesy. Digg was utterly destroyed by this. Then Reddit, which has not died, but is utterly captured and zombified. HackerNew…

What is this about reddit being zombified? Dont they have huge traffic?

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#89

Post by CydeWeys »

arcticbull wrote: post #82
CydeWeys wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people/companies own a trademark on X. It's a very common TM. I mean it is a single letter after all!

Absolutely, but. If Microsoft owns it in the context of social media, that changes everything. Sure there's a Delta Airlines and a Delta Faucets. If I wanted to start Delta Carpentry of Iowa that wouldn't be an issue. However, if I bought Alaska Airlines, woke up tomorrow and rebranded it Delta - you can be sure they'd fly their lawyers out to Anchorage out on a Gulfstream. [edit] Meta -> Microsoft, from tfa. My bad.

But is Meta actually using it? I haven't seen it. Good luck to them trying to defend the mark id they aren't actively using it (or even worse, never did).

Re: Microsoft Owns the Trademark for “X”

#90

Post by PeterCorless »

lolinder wrote: post #59
ehhthing wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://trademarkgarden.com/2018/03/09/amazon-and-you/ The two are equivalent.

No, they aren't, and your source doesn't say they are. This is your source's description of the type of trademark that Meta has on X (AN ILLUSTRATION DRAWING WITH WORD(S) /LETTER(S)/ NUMBER(S) INSTYLIZED FORM): > This Type is similar to “STANDARD CHARACTER MARK” in that it can only include words or phrases, and not images, however it does include a claim as to the particular stylization (font) and may, but do not hav…

At least Meta made a unique mark. "𝕏" is a mathematical symbol, known as a doublestruck, or blackboard bold, letter X.

You can't get trademark on a mathematical symbol, generally.

https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1D54F

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_bold

Such a letter 𝕏 is sometimes used to represent arbitrary or generic metric space:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_space

There is already another Hacker News thread that is dealing with this specific symbol:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36846076

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