X Social Media is suing X, a social media company::Elon Musk’s X is being sued by a Florida company called X Social Media for alleged unfair competition and trademark violations that it says have resulted in lost revenue.

  • ArghZombies@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I like the fact that the article had to refer to the non-Musk site as XSM instead of its full name of ‘X Social Media’ because it would just make the article too confusing to use the proper name.

    That perfectly illustrates the point.

    I suppose it also means that if XSM lose the case because X is too generic, anyone can then set up a rival social media company also called X.

    They can probably use the same logo too as it’s just Unicode.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      I’m just amazed that it turns out there’s actually 2 people who think this is a good name for a social media website.

      • Joe@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        There is a good chance that there are A-W, Y and Z social media companies too. Some may be legit (eg. marketing on existing social media platforms), and others more for trademark squatting.

    • kartonrealista@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So is apple. Just because it’s generic doesn’t mean it’s not protected by trademark law. Trademarks are also first come first serve, exclusive to a given industry (so you could call your company Apple or X, but it better be not in a business where it’s already trademarked). They’re also use it or lose it, and you basically have to sue others using it if you want to keep it.

      Obviously the logo isn’t just the character X, it’s a character X in particular font. If they used the same one they would be violating their trademark.

    • V H@lemmy.stad.social
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      1 year ago

      Took this in London the other day.

      It’s too common a symbol for X.org to have much of a shot because they’re not competitors. This “X Social Media” might have a stronger claim if they’ve actually used and defended a trademark specifically in the social space.

    • Kayn@dormi.zone
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      1 year ago

      Except their logo wasn’t stolen.

      X is using a standard Unicode symbol.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Its probably still too different for that, but I am not against them trying of course.

      • hh93@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Apple has successfully trademarked everything that remotely looks like an apple with a bite taken out - there’s a good chance it’ll work

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I like how they make a deal with Apple Records in the 80s that allowed both companies to use similar logos so long as Apple Computers didn’t sell music and Apple Records didn’t sell computers.

          Then when iTunes became Apple’s #1 product in the 2000s Apple successfully defended itself in court claiming that digital downloads were just 1s and 0s, so Apple Computers never sold music.

          • davidgro@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Did it actually go to trial? The line I heard was that when developing the iPod/iTunes they simply had a budget item for “Settlement with Apple Records”.

        • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What is worse than an apple with a bite taken out and a worm in it?

          An apple with a bite taken out and half a worm in it!

  • DeadNinja@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That lawsuit simply says : “acquire me, acquire me, O Holy Musk, acquire me…”

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Which is good in my opinion.

      Ol’ Musky just went “I want Twitter to be named X” and hoped reality would shape to his thoughts.

      And now, some random person who made a shitty shell company for a few hundred bucks gets to get a couple mil because baby Elong Muskrat didn’t bother to do his homework.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    It was bound to happen eventually: a company has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Elon Musk’s X Corp. over its renaming of Twitter (via Reuters).

    The company in question is X Social Media LLC, an ad agency from Florida that alleges X Corp. is guilty of violating Florida common law because of “unfair competition and trademark and service mark infringement,” as well as the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

    X Social Media (hereafter referred to as XSM to make this article easier to write) writes in the complaint that it has used its registered trademark, “X SOCIALMEDIA,” continuously since 2016.

    XSM claims it has “already suffered loss in revenue that correlates with X Corp.’s rebrand and use of the mark ‘X.’”

    It’s unclear how strong X Social Media’s case will ultimately be.

    Law professor Alexandra Roberts told The Verge earlier this year that the “crowded field” of “X” trademarks could make it hard for any individual X-branded service to enforce a claim against another — whether that’s Musk’s X or a company like X Social Media.


    The original article contains 177 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved -1%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • jaaval@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Technically they are not exactly on the same field which could allow using similar trademarks. But on the other hand in this case X’s use of X could be reasonably argued to be very confusing for customers and therefore violating X’s trademark.

  • alienanimals@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Downvote Musk spam.

    The billionaire doesn’t need your help ensuring him and his businesses stay in the headlines every day. Don’t be a useful idiot.

  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The article says it is “an ad agency”.

    Makes me curious: why are they calling themselves “Social Media”?

    • fluxion@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      X used to be an ad agency before Musk scared off all their advertisers and turned it into a subscription bullshit delivery service

    • smeg@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Doesn’t all corpo social media make their money through ads? I think I remember Zuccerbot responding “we sell advertising” when the American politicians asked him what Facebook actually does.