I was uncomfortable with it when twitter first came out just due to the sheer ridiculousosity of it.
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
#22You can't trademark a word that's in the English dictionary can you?
Generic ("beer" or "cold beer") and purely descriptive terms ("computer repair") cannot be trademarked. Terms that are suggestive, arbitrary, or fanciful can be registered, with fanciful getting the most protection.
However, if an otherwise descriptive term has become associated in the public mind with the products of one competitor, then the term acquires what is called a "secondary meaning" and can thereby be registered as a protectable trademark.
Secondary meaning usually is the result of a massive and long-term marketing campaign (e.g., "Windows").
That is the general terrain for this area. Using these standards, common words that appear in a dictionary can wind up being protected as trademarks.
I think the issue with "tweet" is not yet decided. Time will tell on how this will come out.
Re: Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications
#23OK, contest time. Let's find the future word for microblogged statements. Is there a way to run such a contest in such a way that every suggested word is automatically free for all to use forever (unless it was trademarked before)? I almost fear no :-( On the other hand when I tried to trademark a word in Germany, it was rejected because it was deemed too common (I didn't think so, but whatever). So maybe if one coul…
Swick - swift talk
This is not a real word. The only swicks in Wikipedia are proper names.
It is nearby a bunch of words, I suppose. Sick, Sweet, Stick, Slick, Squick.
Also nice because it suffixes neatly: swicked, swicking, swicks, swicker, swiction.
Re: Twitter Grows Uncomfortable With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications
#24I use Twitter, but I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with it.
There's no revenue stream for Twitter, except for hitting up investors. Those investors expect a return. What is Twitter going to do to try to pay them back? Targeted ads (cool)? Detailed user demographics (not cool)?
Why try to kick the feet out from under the people actually building an ecosystem around their product? I can understand trying to keep a clear separation between Twitter and that ecosystem for branding purposes, but I think this goes beyond that need.