Twitter Shot Down on 'Tweet' Trademark

When Twitter founder Biz Stone said last month the company was trying to trademark the word “tweet,” the internet flew into a tizzy, worried that the word would be closed off to independent developers. But they needn’t have worried, writes blogger Sam Johnston. Stone neglected to mention that Twitter had already applied for the trademark back in April—only to be rejected the very same day.

The USPTO swiftly sent Twitter’s lawyer an email rejection, citing three other pending trademarks that included the word tweet: Tweetmarks, CoTweet and TweetPhoto. All three look poised for registration, and if even one gets it, then Twitter can kiss its monopoly on the word goodbye. (More Twitter stories.)