A Florida company has filed a federal lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk’s X Corp., formerly Twitter Inc., alleging that its use of the “X” name infringes on X Social Media LLC’s trademark and violates Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
X Social Media LLC, which connects people with legal beefs to top-tier law firms on a contingency basis, filed the lawsuit Oct. 2 in the Middle District of Florida. The company has been using its “X” moniker since 2016, and it alleges in its legal complaint that X Social Media has sustained a loss in revenue that corresponds to Musk’s rebranding of Twitter in July of this year.
“X Corp.’s use of the “X” mark and recent attempt to register the mark in association with social media, business data, promotion and advertising, business consulting, market research services and advertising services … necessitates this action because its conduct has caused and will continue to cause serious irreparable harm to X Social Media,” the lawsuit states.
The rebranding of the Twitter social media platform has led to consumer confusion over services offered by the plaintiff and those offered by X Corp., the complaint says. In turn, Windermere-based X Social Media is seeking damages for a drop in income and goodwill as well as an injunction against X Corp. from using the “X” mark.
“We were among the first to channel the power of social media to educate victims of injustices and connect them with advocates committed to seeking redress,” Jacob Malherbe, co-founder of X Social Media, said in a prepared statement. “We have built a distinctive mark associating our ‘X’ with services focused on turning the tide on societal harms. We believe the recent actions of X Corp. undermine our efforts and cause confusion amongst our cherished community.”
J. Nevin Shaffer Jr., a licensed patent attorney in Gulf Breeze, said a key question in such litigation is whether there is a likelihood of confusion in the consumer’s mind as to the source of services between the two trademarks.
“Typically, both sides will introduce surveys that show their side is correct,” Shaffer, who no longer litigates, told the Florida Record in an email. “The judge or jury will have to make the final decision. Since the analysis is a subjective one, trademark cases are extraordinarily difficult to predict.”
But he said such cases can often boil down to a couple of truisms: The side with the bigger wallet will prevail, or the side that the jury or judge dislikes the most will lose.
“If X Social Media can show that as soon as the other “X” came out, their advertising-services income dropped like a stone, they could prevail on that claim,” Shaffer said.
According to its website, X Social Media built its reputation in the wake of the BP oil spill in 2010 by “serving as the bridge between everyday people and legal assistance.” The company has spent more than $400 million in advertising to provide victims with better options for redress, the company reports.
Before facing a decline in its earnings profile earlier this year, X Social Media recorded a 2,439% spurt in income growth over a recent three-year period, according to the lawsuit. The company sent a cease-and-desist letter to X Corp. in August in an attempt to get Musk’s company to stop using the “X” mark, but X Corp. continued to disregard X Social Media’s trademark rights, the complaint says.