news Problems with Domains, Branding and Trademark in a best modern example

[VRdommy]

I had originally posted this in a niche thread but decided it was news enough for all to think on.

If you want a lesson on 'Branding' and 'Domains' along with 'Trademark'
Pay close attention to what is going on with Elon Musk with Twitter and his brand 'X'
or should I say, want to be brand 'X' with x.com
We may get a few court lessons with this. But domain investors should be paying attention.
It's not very often what I talk about in the relationship of these 3 things shines through in such a visible way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com

But this news is not yet complete. You have to watch the evolving story.

 

[VRdommy]

I thought it might be important for those unfamiliar, some background as we wait for the evolution of this story.

 

[DomainNature]

This is what I told to Musk and sent him through x.ai contact form to join their team but did not get a reply.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1688824985052135424

 

[VRdommy]

So, it's been about 6 months. Just some thoughts.

Everyone seems to spend more time using the phrase
'X formally known as twitter'

Is this anything like Prince and 'artist formally known as Prince'.
(he did eventually get his name back from WB and was not voluntary)

From a marketing point of view, this is not a good thing.
But, as long as everyone knows what/who you are talking about, it gets a pass.
Myself, I still say Twitter cause I want no confusion or extra effort in words.
Nobody is asking me... oh... do you mean X ? I'm sure you can see the issue.

Playing the role of armchair QB, I would say he would have been better to build the brand 'X' and then include Twitter.
It is just a hard conversion unless you are willing to spend heavy on advertising to change the perceptions.

Just in the case some of you do not understand or know Musk's vision for the brand, it was all things brought under one brand/roof. Kinda like Sears had in it's beginning, only they did not own the individual brands they sold. But did eventually have manufactures make things under their brand. But, one place to get everything.

But his core problem will be protecting the brand 'X'.
It is not only to generic to protect highly, but had existing use that also is not protected.
And that extends around the globe. Not just in the US.
Preventing or limiting his brand protection and perhaps use. Someone already in use of the term and unprotected for years, could legitimately make a claim if he tries to expand the brand even if they have no excursive TM registered.
For it is about brand confusion, registered TM or not. One could perhaps say we did not know of it and researched accordingly and only limit potential damage claims. In other cases, you may have to buy that from the current user.
Just not a mess I would want to be in but he does have a staff of paid lawyers just for this stuff.

On the other side of this, you have a brand like Nike, who has listed for protection for nearly everything under the sun that I doubt most would ever know them for and likely have never produced products under.them
(see G&S for Nike in TM DB).
And at the same time, Nike itself is generic as it is the 'God Of Victory' Can you imagine. Quite a contrast with X a single letter of the alphabet..

It would have been smarter to make X a parent company like Alphabet.

When Twitter first came to be, it was not Tweeter for a reason if anybody ever gave it much thought.

If you by chance see his vision of the brand?
I would say then why is it that Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Co and nearly 100 other company's are not currently under that umbrella as we speak ? And no announced plans to do that. Perhaps only new things ?
Rumors have been a payment system. But I am really not sure he can enter that space 'directly' when he sold his interest in PayPal. It could be in the terms of the sale. But I do not know that. But it is standard practice that I doubt anyone overlooked on the inside. Perhaps it has a time limit.

So, some not seeing the relationship yet with domains ?
I am sorry to say this like everyone was a newb, but many reading this likely are.
A brand is created as a single source name you put all of your weight behind to identify a product or service with.
You do not buy names of existing brands. That would be a violation of TM.

You are looking for future brands. A good branding name is one that is protectable against use by others.
You do not find that with generic names. And why some in crowded fields resort to misspelling or 'sounds-like' of common names to brand behind. Just so they can protect it and invest behind it.

If a entity is going to be highly reliant on the internet, they might decide that brand name based on what domain they can obtain as well in these modern times.

If you think on that a while, I think you will better choose names if branding is your target.
Just know that just because you buy a name before anyone actually brands with it,
does not necessarily afford you 'all protection'. It is about your use and/or intended use.
To play this 'BRAND' game, you need to put your marketing and legal hats on to be any good at it.

So, exercises thinking like this are good for a domain'rs soul.


Unless someone has something interesting more about this, I will not likely revisit it till we hit 1 year and see where we are. But honestly, I don't see it progressing any better than it has been.

 

[karmaco]

https://slate.com/technology/2023/04/twitter-inc-x-corp-elon-musk-x-nevada.html

He seems to be having no major issues rebranding his x companies (one lawsuit by X Social Media) and “Twitter” technically no longer exists. Instead X Corp and X Holdings are the legal entities.

One factoid that seems overlooked is he was the original applicant to an x.com 1999 trademark that got folded into PayPal before his repurchase of X.com in 2017. The mark is abandoned. He has an obsession with the letter X for a long time.

There are quite a few X trademarks I think I read like 963 that use the letter X so I don’t think it can be truly classified as generic.

X is accepted as the new name but yes it might take decades for people to stop saying Twitter.

In this case with such a high profile owner with worldwide name recognition (who doesn’t know Elon’s list of companies by name) much different than an unknown entity building a brand from scratch.