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Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications

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Re: Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications

#4
post #2

Does anyone actually believe they will be pursuing companies using tweet or twit in URLs?

Yes. Consider this hypothetical scenario.

Twitter builds image sharing as part of twitter.com at say twity.com. But twitpic.com is beating them all the way(better implementation, user inertia whatever).

Is it hard to see someone at twitter, try to use their trademark to beat them?

[Edit]

Also in their response Twitter says,

> As part of this support, we encourage developers of new applications and services built using Twitter APIs to invent original branding for their projects rather than use our marks, logos, or look and feel.

And says nothing on whether using tweet in names is acceptable by them. If they don't mind, wgy not say so?

Re: Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications

#6
post #3

You can't trademark a word that's in the English dictionary can you?

http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html

Some amusing entries:

Aperture, Apple, Aqua, Bonjour, Boot Camp, Capitals, Carbon, Charcoal, Chicago, Cocoa, Exposé, Gadget, Inkwell, Instruments, Keychain, Keynote, Leopard, Logic, New York, Numbers, Pages, Panther, Photo Booth, Quartz, Rosetta, Safari, Sand, Shake, Shuffle, Soundtrack, Spaces, Spotlight, Techno, Textile, Tiger, Time Capsule, Time Machine, Tremor, Tubes.

This is okay because trademarks have namespaces. It's just that namespace collisions result in lawsuits.

Re: Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications

#7
post #3

You can't trademark a word that's in the English dictionary can you?

Apple?

I don't think they have "Apple" trademarked. Their trademark is Apple Inc. (and formerly Apple Computer) And yea, that name has brought on some lawsuits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v._Apple_Computer

Re: Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications

#8
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple?

I don't think they have "Apple" trademarked. Their trademark is Apple Inc. (and formerly Apple Computer) And yea, that name has brought on some lawsuits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v._Apple_Computer

They definitely have Apple, as well as a number of other common English words.

Re: Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications

#10
This is ridiculous. On Nov 21st 2008 a representative from Twitter said this,

"There are certainly many applications out there that include Twitter as part of their name, but we prefer that you not do so. Twit, Tweet etc. are all fine."

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:SGqicWFJttIJ:groups.goog...

Many people, myself included, acted upon this information in good faith (and in my case at a monetary cost for a domain name containing the word "tweet").

Does this public pronouncement affect their legal standing when it comes to defending the trademark "tweet"?

Edit: Should I continue with this? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=677643

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