Just when you think that Elon Musk's life couldn't get any weirder, he is now facing a lawsuit as the owner of the social media company X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, by another company with the notable "X" mark on the company name.
X Versus X
For a very common title like "X," Musk will likely encounter a company that has a similar name, and now he has. An ad agency called X Social Media LLC claims that the Tesla CEO's rebranding effort is hurting their business and resorted to taking legal action.
The lawsuit states that X Corp is violating the common law of the State of Florida with "unfair competition and trademark and service mark infringement," as well as "violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act."
Although the marketing agency is based in Florida and the social media company in Nevada, the court has "personal jurisdiction" over the defendant as X Corp has "transacted business, regularly does business. And supplies services in the State of Florida."
X Social Media says that it has been operational since 2016, founded by Jacob Malherbe in 2015. Upon adopting the name "X," Musk's social media site was registered as such in association with social media, business data, and promotion and advertising.
While X Corp using the "infringing mark" as a social media company may be harmless, Musk is also offering marketing services, which clashes with the business of the ad agency. As shown in The Verge, it "has caused and will continue to cause serious irreparable harm to X Social Media."
Twitter to X
Elon Musk announced his plans to change the well-known brand Twitter to X back in July 2023, already knowing about the preexisting rights of X Social Media. Despite that, X Corp still proceeded with the rebrand and was a legal entity by April 2023.
The tech billionaire's obsession with the infringing mark "X" is no secret. His astronautics company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, is more known for its shorter name, SpaceX. His son is even named X Æ A-12.
This is not the first time that Musk's rebranding stepped on the toes of other individuals. For instance, a user on what was formerly known as Twitter got the username @X first, but given that it is now the official name of the company, they decided to use it for themselves.
The problem is, X Corp did not exactly do so swimmingly. According to the former user of @X Gene X Hwang, the company only informed him of the takeover after it was already done. X Corp tried to compensate Hwang by offering merchandise and a tour of X headquarters.
Since @X was not only a name that the company was after but also a rare username, people believe that the company should've given Hwang financial compensation instead of merchandise and efforts to show appreciation through the tour.
What's worse is that the Hwang was given a much more complicated name. According to Tech Crunch, his username is now @x1234567998765. That just adds to the problematic rebranding, aside from wasting the years that Twitter has gone through building the brand.
