Multiply, a Virginia-based company, specializes in creating social media advertising campaigns for beverage brands such as Arizona, Liquid Death, and Corona. The company onboarded the “X” brand back in 2019 and holds a registered trademark for its “X” logo, meaning it has full rights to the mark long before Elon Musk acquired Twitter.
In a press statement, a Multiply representative stated that Musk “shamelessly ripped off our established PR and social media agency identity” and that the company “had no choice but to defend our mark and take Twitter (X) to court.”
As it turned out, the company’s spokesperson wasn’t just making empty promises, as it was recently officially stated that Elon Musk’s social media platform is infringing on the trademark rights of the company Multiply, and as a result, a lawsuit in this matter against the company X Corp has n filed in a federal court in California. The justification stated that X (formerly Twitter) is causing confusion among consumers by using the “X” trademark in social media marketing services that compete with the services provided by the plaintiff. According to Multiply, the rebranding of Twitter to X is misleading customers about the origin of the services marked in this way, and thus infringes on their trademark rights to “X,” which was registered by the company in 2019.
The lawsuit states that the rebranding of Twitter has already caused confusion among Multiply’s current and potential customers, many of whom overlap with X Corp’s customers. Multiply also requests that X Corp cease using the “X” trademark and pay the company compensation for the damages incurred. However, the requested amount has not n disclosed. One can only assume that it involves a substantial sum.
As of now, there is no official statement from X Corp. Interestingly, after acquiring the platform last year, Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to X, which has caused a lot of problems from the beginning. This is because hundreds of other companies own “X” trademarks, and X Corp has to defend itself in many different lawsuits regarding trademark infringement, including a similar case where it was sued by the marketing company X Social Media.
This dispute shows that not every quick decision is good and well-thought-out. In this case, time will tell how this and other cases regarding trademark infringement involving or based on the letter “X” will end.
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