I am wondering how this will play out but I just had an opportunity to read through a TechCrunch article by Robin Wauters where it was uncovered that Twitter, Inc. may begin reaching out to people that are using Tweet in their applications or in their businesses and asking that they refrain from the practice. This seems to me to be a day late and a billion dollars short. I can’t understand how they are just now thinking of trademarking in as little time as May of 2009 the word Tweet. What other words have they asked be trademarked? What law firm sold them on this idea? Surely if you began to get some steam as you did back in as early as 2007 you would have thought that some of these names associated with your brand would have been at that more valuable? To begin this process now seems like an oops to me. I actually like the email sent as it seems to give the impression that they have no weight behind the statement:
Hi,
Twitter, Inc is uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own. How can we go about having you change your UI to better differentiate your offering from our own?
They feel "uncomfortable?" Perhaps if they really thought this was a battle worth winning they would actually be more than just "uncomfortable." I fully expect after the update to the blog post added after the fact wherein Twitter provides a response, that we will get yet another update that says something to the effect that, "We realize this seems crazy but we forgot to actually think of this before." The next thing you know they will be printing up business cards and hiring a receptionist.
This all seems to be the way this company is operating behind the scenes. They fell into a great thing without realizing its potential or what it would turn into. They then found that it was cool and might be worth some money to someone, then they found out that they should have some idea as to how to make money with it, and now they are realizing that they should be protecting it from everyone. I just shake my head at the way this company is shaping up. It must just be one comedy show after another behind he scenes there. The great thing is, it is still loved by millions.
Tags: Twitter, Trademark, Technology, Legal Issues, Business, Social Media Tools
Alert Sylvester and Tweety Bird at once!