X Social Media sues Elon Musk’s X over the ‘X’ name

X is being sued by X.

To be more specific: Elon Musk’s X is being sued by a Florida-based legal marketing company called X Social Media for trademark infringement over the name X. 

The lawsuit marks the first time Musk’s company has been sued regarding the name change. It very likely won’t be the last such suit, as there are hundreds of federal trademarks for X owned by various companies in the technology sector.

According to X Social Media’s lawsuit, Twitter’s name change and use of X has caused confusion in the social media space. The marketing firm claims that people have assumed the company was related to Musk’s X due to the name, one that X Social Media has been using since 2016. 

X Social Media claims it has already experienced financial loss due to Musk’s X name change, which the company believes will continue to cause financial harm.

In August, after Musk abruptly changed the platform’s name from Twitter to X, the legal marketing company sent a cease and desist to the social media platform regarding the name change. However, Musk’s X obviously continued using the X name. 

Furthermore, X Social Media points to Musk’s company filing trademarks for the X name in “association with social media, business data, promotion and advertising, business consulting, market research services, and advertising services” as proof of the company infringing on its trademark, as X Social Media operates in such industries.

X Social Media is seeking an injunction from the court in order to prohibit Musk from continued usage of X for his social media platform. The company is also seeking damages in the amount of three times its losses or Musk’s X’s profits.

As Engadget points out, over the summer, trademark attorney Josh Gerben told Reuters that there was “about a 100 percent probability that Twitter/X will be sued by both opportunistic and legitimate plaintiffs over the new name.”

Gerben’s law firm is representing X Social Media in its case against Musk’s X.