this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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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.

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[–] ArghZombies@lemmy.world 199 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

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 82 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.

[–] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 years ago

There aren't. The first company is an ad agency that specializes in social media.

[–] kartonrealista@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years 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.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 193 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I really want X.org to get some massive compensation for Elon's theft of their logo.

[–] vidarh@lemmy.stad.social 84 points 2 years 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.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 39 points 2 years ago

And give all the money to Wayland.

[–] HKayn@dormi.zone 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Except their logo wasn't stolen.

X is using a standard Unicode symbol.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] oscar@programming.dev 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

𝕏 (U+1D54F) and/or 𝕩 (U+1D569)

If you search blackboard bold or double-struck letters you can find more.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

So basically musk is so cheap (and toxic) he can't even convince any graphic designers to work for him.

Lol

[–] Critical_Insight@feddit.uk 9 points 2 years ago

𝕏 is a Unicode character known as "mathematical double-struck capital X."

Source

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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

[–] hh93@lemm.ee 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 1 points 2 years 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".

X.XXX

Whatever happened to all the buzz about the internet finally giving porn sites their own top-level domain.

[–] DeadNinja@lemmy.world 89 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That lawsuit simply says : "acquire me, acquire me, O Holy Musk, acquire me..."

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.

[–] Salamendacious@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this as someone praying for a check.

[–] db2@sopuli.xyz 61 points 2 years ago
[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 57 points 2 years ago

With Musk's fetish for all things "X", now may be the time to start squatting trademarks.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 46 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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!

[–] Diggix@lemmy.dbzer0.com 54 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Bot dropping the ball big time.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 60 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You have to applaud the fact the bot did correctly report a negative savings and did not show us whatever the bot equivalent is of a seg fault.

[–] match@pawb.social 18 points 2 years ago

fwiw, the bot mangled some text around The Verge with some nbsp and that's what makes up the -1%, the text is otherwise identical

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Jesus, Bot. You're a damned failure.

[–] krimson@feddit.nl 34 points 2 years ago

Bot is awesome. It has saved me from many cookie popups and ads.

[–] systemglitch@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

What the bot added more words than it removed? BAD BOT, BAD!

[–] casmael@lemm.ee 39 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sorry who is suing who now?

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 77 points 2 years ago (3 children)

X is suing X. X is a social media company, and so is X. I hope that clears things up!

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Well then, I really hope X wins.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

No matter who wins, we all lose.

[–] Asudox@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

So the people using Twitter are suing Twitter?

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Former Twitter is just called X, but the other company is X Social Media.

[–] jaaval@sopuli.xyz 23 points 2 years 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.

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] db2@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

What do you mean this isn't a real show? Am I getting paid real money?

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

ROFL

I love that episode though!

[–] alienanimals@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years 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.

[–] ClassyHatter@sopuli.xyz 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Afiefh@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

If we are lucky, it'll end with Musk's bankruptcy.

[–] lustyargonian@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago

ex-X formerly Twitter.