Twitter has been referred to as "the Wild West of the
internet—a lawless, godless place designed for sinners and
sure to corrupt the pure of heart."1 While Twitter may
not corrupt everyone, it does open new avenues to commit trademark
infringement.
What Are Hashtags and Hashflags?
A hashtag is a type of metadata tag
used on social media symbolized with a "#" symbol. Users
create a hashtag by placing the "#" sign in front of
other text or characters, such as #love or #I_Hate_Mondays. This
creates a searchable term on Twitter, Instagram, etc., and users
can click on that hashtag to search for other social media posts
using that same hashtag.2
A hashflag is a customized emoji
(image) that is automatically inserted by Twitter in a tweet if a
specific hashtag is used. Twitter launched hashflags for the 2010
World Cup.3 Twitter soon monetized this
service, and started charging companies millions of dollars for a
temporary hashflag.4 Coca-Cola was reportedly the
