US court blocks startup trying to revive Twitter from using its name

A federal court in Delaware has barred Operation Bluebird, a startup trying to revive the old Twitter brand, from using the Twitter trademark.

The ruling does not extend to two other familiar pieces of Twitter’s identity. The court found that X no longer uses the word “tweet” or the blue bird logo, allowing Operation Bluebird to keep both for now, according to TechCrunch. The startup has since renamed its social network from Twitter.new to Tweet.app, while keeping the bird.

The story began with X’s own rebranding. Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, then retired the Twitter name and its blue branding in the summer of 2023, replacing both with X. As Musk put it at the time, he effectively “threw the bird away on his way out.”

Intellectual property lawyer Michael Perof saw an opening. Together with Stephen Coates, a former Twitter trademark attorney, he founded Operation Bluebird with the aim of bringing the abandoned brand back to life. The startup revealed its plans in late 2025 and applied to register the abandoned blue bird logo. X responded by suing Operation Bluebird, arguing that the rebrand did not amount to giving up its rights to the Twitter trademark.

The court’s decision is not final, and TechCrunch notes that Operation Bluebird could still be allowed to use the Twitter name later in the case, particularly given that the original social network now operates everywhere as X. For now, Tweet.app is already live with a waitlist. Early access and username reservations cost $20, and around 172,000 people have signed up, according to TechCrunch. The platform also features Vera, an automated fact-checking system powered by Google’s Gemini AI model.