The "X" trademark owned by Meta belongs to Mixer, a game streaming site formerly run by Microsoft, which was shut down in 2017, but its operations were taken over by Facebook Gaming. The "X" trademark of Mixer was also given to Meta at that time.
Isn’t it only the logo that’s trademarked, rather than the name “X”? I am not an expert on trademarks by all means, how likely is it that Meta would actually have a case here?
It's true that they use the text "X" in the (textual) description of the trademark, but that is not what's being trademarked. See the "Mark Information" drop-down on the page[1], for more detail.
> Providing on-line chat rooms for transmission of messages among computer users concerning video and computer games; providing on-line electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users concerning video and computer games
> Entertainment services, namely, providing interactive multiplayer game services for games played over computer networks and global communications networks; providing computer games and video games downloadable over computer global communications networks; providing information on the video game and computer game industries via the Internet; and providing information on computer games, video games, video game consoles and accessories therefor via the Internet
So for _those narrow usecases_, Microsoft can (in theory) enforce a trademark over the character "X". Any attempt to use that trademark here would be tossed immediately IMO.
Those narrow use cases definitely seem to overlap with Twitter though. Obviously Twitter is not exclusively about video and computer games, but a subset of Twitter users certainly use Twitter "for transmission of messages among computer users concerning video and computer games"
Not a lawyer but I don’t think that matters. Twitter isn’t using the mark for a service about video games, inasmuch as nobody would describe Twitter in one sentence as “a messaging platform about video games” any more than they’d describe email or SMS that way.
You never know but I think this would be too far of a stretch to pose a real risk.
Microsoft's trademark is for just the letter "X", not the specific design.
This is extra-confusing on the USPTO site[1] because it says "Standard Character Claim: No" (which usually means not text), but it also says "Mark Drawing Type: 1 - TYPESET WORD(S) /LETTER(S) /NUMBER(S)".
And that last part is merely the old way of saying it is Standard Character Claim (that's the newer terminology). See their documentation[2] (page 7); the terminology changed in 2003.
So my understanding (not a lawyer) is that Microsoft's "X" is indeed generic text, though still limited to the specific goods/services listed in the application.
Trademark are there to reduce confusion in the marketplace so it’s not about the look of X alone but also the products involved. Acura’s A logo is very distinctive but Audi couldn’t just swap their logo an A in a circle using a different font and be ok. They are both car companies so having different A logos would be confusing.
Where the specific design of the logo is critical is for shirts etc. If you’re selling clothing with other people’s logos that’s a problem, but a distinctive X design is going to be fine.
This is (to my understanding) the difference between a character mark and a design mark. The Acura logo is a design mark. Acura don't, AFAIK (but I haven't searched because searching the USPTO for "A" sounds like hell) have a character mark on the letter A for use in cars. Consider the counterexample in the same industry: Honda and Hyundai both have H in a frame as a logo, and I have no knowledge of a trademark dispute between the two.
The X trademark in question appears to be a Service Mark[0], meaning it is a name to represent a service (in this case some kind of social media chat service). My understanding is that the trademark applies to competing services regardless of the artwork or logo, so the social media chat service formerly known as Twitter may have trouble avoiding a collision with it if they want to rename themselves X.
Yes, though my point about the circle should have been more clear. I think Audi could be fine with an A inside of an triangle because it would be plenty distinctive.
Similarly the Honda and Hyundai logos use very different frames rather than the common circle which makes them far easier to distinguish than different fonts inside a circle. Namely a box with rounded corners vs an oval. Honda’s H also floats in the frame where Hyundai connects to the oval etc. The point of a logo is to be distinctive and they are.
> But could you even get a trademark for X, a single character?
Yes. In fact there are at least a few registrations in the TESS database of X for various goods and services. They don’t conflict with each other unless the goods and services are the same.
Isn't the bigger issue that they haven't been actively enforcing the trademark since at least 2020? You have to enforce trademarks otherwise they lapse.
You can look at the trademark's registration in the USPTO site that was linked[1]. See the "Documents" tab. This one was first issued in ~2018, so would not need renewal until 2028.
You don't generally need to sue every infringer in order to keep your trademark. My understanding is it can vary by court and it gets a bit legally complex, and the final decision will depend on various factors (eg: [2]).
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87980831&caseType=SERIAL_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixer_(service)