Twitter.now launches, says X gave up the Twitter trademark
Operation Bluebird, a Virginia based startup, announced on Monday that it has launched Twitter.now, a new social media network. The company argues that when Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and quickly renamed the company X, he abandoned the Twitter identity and its intellectual property, and that this opened the door for Operation Bluebird to claim the Twitter trademarks for itself.
Musk's X Corporation disputed that reading and sued Operation Bluebird late last year, asking a federal judge in Delaware for a preliminary injunction to stop a new version of Twitter from launching. At an April 2026 hearing, US District Court Judge Colm Connolly gave a tentative ruling from the bench: X appeared to have given up its intellectual property claims over the word 'tweet' and the Twitter bird logo, and possibly even over the word 'Twitter' itself. The judge has not yet issued a written order, so the ruling remains provisional.
Stephen Coates, one of Operation Bluebird's cofounders and the new Twitter's general counsel, who held the same role at the pre-Musk Twitter, said the judge's tentative comments were enough of a green light to stop waiting. 'We are a small company, we have investors, and we have a product,' he told Ars Technica. 'And we have waited months and months to launch, and we are not going to wait anymore.' He added: 'It's our opinion that X has abandoned its rights on the Twitter and tweet trademarks.'
According to the report, the new Twitter.now is taking care to distance itself from the earlier iteration of Twitter, though no specifics on what that distancing involves are given. The source names no user numbers, funding figures, or valuation for Twitter.now, and does not say whether X Corporation has reacted to the launch or plans to seek an injunction against the site specifically.
Key facts
- Operation Bluebird, a Virginia startup, launched the social network Twitter.now on Monday, reviving the Twitter name and bird logo it says Elon Musk's X Corporation abandoned.
- X Corporation sued Operation Bluebird late last year and sought a preliminary injunction in Delaware federal court to block a new Twitter from launching.
- At an April 2026 hearing, Judge Colm Connolly gave a tentative bench ruling that X appears to have given up its claims to the word 'tweet' and the bird logo, and possibly 'Twitter' itself; no written order has been issued yet.
- Cofounder Stephen Coates, Twitter.now's general counsel and a former general counsel at pre-Musk Twitter, said the tentative ruling was reason enough to launch without further delay.
- Twitter.now is described as deliberately distancing itself from the earlier Twitter, though the source gives no details on how, and it is silent on user numbers or funding.
Why it matters
This is a live test of whether a company can lose trademark rights simply by rebranding away from a name, even a famous one. Operation Bluebird's entire venture rests on the idea that Musk's 2022 rename of Twitter to X counted as abandonment under trademark law, freeing the Twitter name, the bird logo, and the word 'tweet' for someone else to use. A federal judge's tentative comments from the bench went some way toward validating that theory, which is what gave Operation Bluebird the confidence to launch a live product rather than wait for the litigation to fully resolve.
Who it affects
The dispute is directly between Elon Musk's X Corporation and Operation Bluebird, the small Virginia company behind Twitter.now. Stephen Coates, who was general counsel at Twitter before Musk's takeover and now holds the same role at Twitter.now, is the company's public face in this fight. Anyone who used to use Twitter and is curious about a name-and-logo revival is a potential user of the new site, and trademark lawyers will watch the case as a precedent for what counts as abandoning a brand.
How to use it
Twitter.now is now live as a social media network under that name, according to the announcement. The source gives no details on signup, pricing, or how the product otherwise works, so nothing about its feature set or business model can be stated beyond the fact that it has launched.
How solid is it
The report comes from Ars Technica, which spoke directly with Stephen Coates and quotes him on the record. The legal basis Operation Bluebird is leaning on, however, is not yet final: Judge Connolly's ruling was tentative and delivered from the bench at an April 2026 hearing, and he has not issued a written order. That means the abandonment theory has judicial support in tone but not yet in a binding, appealable document.
Risks and caveats
Because the ruling is only tentative and unwritten, X Corporation retains room to contest it once a formal order appears, and the underlying lawsuit is still open. The source does not say whether X has responded to the Twitter.now launch or whether it will seek an injunction specifically against the live site, so the legal risk to Operation Bluebird's new product remains unresolved. No figures on funding, users, or valuation are available to gauge how substantial the venture actually is.
“We are a small company, we have investors, and we have a product. And we have waited months and months to launch, and we are not going to wait anymore.”
— Stephen Coates, Operation Bluebird cofounder and Twitter.now general counsel