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ARTICLE · 14 OCTOBER 2011

Twitter Stakes Its Claim To TWEET

Foley Hoag LLP
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The online "microblogging" service Twitter filed suit last month against Twittad, LLC, a company that enlists Twitter users to participate in advertising campaigns for pay.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Foley Hoag LLP
Foley Hoag LLP
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The online "microblogging" service Twitter filed suit last month against Twittad, LLC, a company that enlists Twitter users to participate in advertising campaigns for pay. Twittad has registered the phrase LET YOUR AD MEET TWEETS with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) as an identifier for its advertising-related services. The lawsuit represents the latest step in Twitter's efforts to assert proprietary rights in the term "tweet," which, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, has been used since at least 2007 as "the word for what one does" on Twitter.

Twitter launched its service in 2006 and first filed to register its trademark in the name TWITTER in 2007. When it came to filing trademark registration applications for TWEET, however, Twitter was a bit late to the party. It first applied to register TWEET for blogging, telecommunications, and social networking services on April 16, 2009. This application has been suspended pending resolution

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