Marked. - Issue 050
A court splits rights in the Twitter name, Tweet, and the bird logo, while publishers bring a new AI copyright case.
Issue No. 050
September 7, 2026
New York
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The IP Briefing · by ESCA Legal
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| A Delaware federal judge granted X Corp. a preliminary injunction barring Operation Bluebird from using the Twitter name, while declining to block its use of Tweet and the former bird logo. |
| § | X still identifies its app as formerly known as Twitter in Apple's App Store, which the court viewed as evidence of continuing trademark use. | | § | Survey evidence supported X's argument that Twitter remains a famous and commercially strong brand. | | § | The court found that Operation Bluebird was likely to prove abandonment of the Tweet mark and bird logo. | | § | Operation Bluebird responded by renaming its service Tweet.app while the litigation continues. |
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| Continue reading → |
| § ESCA Takeaway |
| A famous brand can remain protected even after a rebrand, but unused pieces of the old identity may face a different abandonment analysis. The same issue also shows copyright owners continuing to test how training, outputs, and attribution fit existing law. |
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| More IP Stories |
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| § Copyright · Filed |
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| The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a New York federal lawsuit alleging that OpenAI and Microsoft copied their journalism to train artificial intelligence systems and reproduced material in chatbot responses. |
| § | The complaint accuses the defendants of using articles without permission as training material. | | § | The publishers also allege that chatbot responses can reproduce passages from their reporting. | | § | Microsoft is named because Copilot uses OpenAI technology. | | § | The requested relief includes destruction of copies, training datasets, and models incorporating the asserted works. |
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Why it matters
The complaint adds recognizable regional publishers to the growing group testing copyright theories against generative AI companies. Its requested relief also puts model destruction and the treatment of incorporated works directly at issue.
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QUICK HITS
| § Trademark | Levi Strauss filed a Northern District of Illinois trademark case against online seller groups identified in a Schedule A. [source] | | § Trademark | Nintendo of America filed a Northern District of Illinois trademark case against online seller groups identified in a Schedule A. [source] |
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This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Published by ESCA Legal. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney advertising; prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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