Operation Bluebird Launches Twitter.now in X Trademark Dispute

Operation Bluebird, a Virginia-based startup co-founded by former Twitter General Counsel Stephen Coates, has launched Twitter.now, a new social media platform seeking to revive the identity and experience associated with the former Twitter service. The launch marks a new phase in the company’s trademark dispute with X Corp., which has challenged Operation Bluebird’s attempt to use Twitter-related intellectual property.

At the heart of the dispute is whether X abandoned trademark rights associated with TWITTER, TWEET, and the Twitter bird logo after Elon Musk acquired Twitter and the company subsequently transitioned to the X brand. Operation Bluebird says it did. But there has been no final court ruling establishing that X abandoned the Twitter trademarks.

The company filed to claim the Twitter trademark last year, but Musk's X Corp. quickly filed a lawsuit to challenge the claim in Delaware federal court. In a LinkedIn post this week, Coates announced the launch of the new site at Twitter.now. The platform is not affiliated with X Corp. and states it is rebuilding the platform around trust.

At a hearing in April 2026, U.S. District Court Judge Colm Connolly tentatively indicated that X may have abandoned its claims to intellectual property rights in the word 'tweet,' the bird logo and, possibly, the word 'Twitter' itself. However, a written order has yet to be released. Operation Bluebird filed petitions in December 2025 to cancel X’s “Twitter” and “tweet” marks at the USPTO, pointing to Musk’s own 2023 declaration as evidence of intent not to resume use.

X maintains that “Twitter never left and continues to be exclusively owned by X Corp.” The dispute remains ongoing, with the administrative cancellation proceeding suspended while the federal litigation advances. Twitter.now currently has hundreds of users and retains features associated with the original Twitter, including replies and reposts.