Twitter Is Right to Defend Its Tweet

Is Twitter going too far defending its tweet? CNET's Webware thinks so after TechCrunch detailed an email they sent to a third-party developer where Twitter states that they are "...uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own."

This response by Twitter may seem heavy-handed, but it is exactly what they are forced to do in order to protect their trademark.

One of the wackiest parts of trademark law is the need to not just frequently and legally us your trademark, but to also protect your trademark from infringement. In fact, if Twitter had not sent the email specifying that the third-party developer was infringing upon their trademark, the absence of that email would be grounds for having their trademark revoked.

So, if they are planning on keeping "tweet" trademarked, they did what they were legally obligated to do in this instance.

This is actually something that is not completely uncommon. I have heard complaints from blog owners who were contacted by a company because their blog name was similar to a trademark. Again, this is simply the company fulfilling its obligation to protect its trademark. The company probably didn't care one bit about the blog name, just as Twitter might be perfectly happy with the proliferation of the word "tweet" in application names.

Unfortunately, they still have to complain about it.

Update: Twitter has responded to the issue in this blog post which basically says they are okay with the use of "tweet" in third-party applications. This goes in line with the idea that they are really just making sure they have their basis covered in regards to trademarking the name "tweet". Remember, they have to safeguard it if they want to trademark it, but that doesn't mean they have to go after people that use it.