Social Media Ad Company Seeks Injunction, Damages in First Trademark Suit Against Musk’s ‘X’
“The complaint charges X Corp with ‘exceptional willful conduct’ and with choosing ‘its ‘X’ mark agenda over avoiding consumer confusion and harm to X Social Media.’”
Following Elon Musk’s bold rebrand of social media platform Twitter, the many lawsuits that have been expected have begun to roll in. In what is said to be the first, X Social Media, LLC has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, charging Musk’s X Corp. with willful trademark infringement, as well as common law violations under Florida competition, trademark and service mark laws and violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
According to the complaint, X Corp., formerly Twitter, was fully aware of the existence of X Social Media’s registered trademark, X SOCIALMEDIA, which covers advertising services and has a first use in commerce date of March 3, 2016. The company, which connects consumers with legal services, said that “[f]rom the company’s inception, the “X” has signified the act of obtaining hope and help via the unprecedented power of social media for people facing a range of injustices.”
In addition to a symbolic meaning of the letter X, X Social Media has used the letter X in blogs and newsletters, such as “The X Blog” and “X Weekly”.
X, formerly Twitter, has seven trademark applications pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its X mark covering various goods and services. But there are hundreds of registrations that include the term “X” in the USPTO’s trademark search database.
The complaint says that X Social Media has consistently protected its brand and has used the mark continuously in commerce over the last five years, and that X Corp.’s use of the X mark has already caused X Social Media lost revenue. According to the lawsuit, a Google search for “x social media” will currently lead to the following answer:
The complaint charges X Corp with “exceptional willful conduct” and with choosing “its ‘X’ mark agenda over avoiding consumer confusion and harm to X Social Media.”
Ultimately, X Social Media is seeking an injunction enjoining X Corp. from marketing, offering, selling or distributing services bearing the mark X or X SOCIALMEDIA and from engaging in deceptive trade practices by offering services in association with the X SOCIALMEDIA mark.
It is also asking the court to direct X Corp. to “publish corrective advertising to correct the consumer confusion caused by Defendant’s infringing use of ‘X’” and to award treble damages.
Eileen McDermott
Eileen McDermott is the Editor-in-Chief of IPWatchdog.com. Eileen is a veteran IP and legal journalist, and no stranger to the intellectual property world, having held editorial and managerial positions at […see more]
