July 24 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's decision to rebrand Twitter as X could be complicated legally: companies including Meta (META.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) already have intellectual property rights to the same letter.
X is so widely used and cited in trademarks that it is a candidate for legal challenges - and the company formerly known as Twitter could face its own issues defending its X brand in the future.
Microsoft since 2003 has owned an X trademark related to communications about its Xbox video-game system.
Meta and Microsoft likely would not sue unless they feel threatened that Twitter's X encroaches on brand equity they built in the letter, Gerben said.
Insider reported earlier that Meta had an X trademark, and lawyer Ed Timberlake tweeted that Microsoft had one as well.
Persons:
Elon, Josh Gerben, Gerben, Meta, Douglas Masters, Loeb, Ed Timberlake, Blake Brittain, Sheila Dang, Peter Henderson, Sonali Paul
Organizations:
Twitter, Meta, Microsoft, Facebook, Thomson
Locations:
Washington