Twitter rebranding sparks controversy as owner of @x account claims no payment received

San Francisco: Tech mogul Elon Musk renamed Twitter as "X" on Monday in a swift rebranding campaign and revealed a new logo for the platform - a stylized black-and-white version of the letter. As part of the ongoing rebranding, Twitter changed its official handle to @X. This left the original @Twitter handle inactive.

However, controversy arose when it came to light that Musk had taken over the @x Twitter account without compensating its owner. Gene X Hwang, the co-founder of Orange Photography, an event photo company, revealed that he had been open to the possibility of selling the @x account, which he had registered back in 2007. Yet, he was caught by surprise when he received an email on Tuesday stating that the account was being taken over by the company.

"They did send an email saying it is the property of 'x' essentially," Hwang confirmed. However, there were no direct communications or negotiations regarding the acquisition. "They just took it essentially – kinda what I thought might happen," he added.

Despite the transfer of the account, Hwang did not receive any financial compensation, although he was offered some X merchandise and a meeting with the company's management.

While Twitter users typically have no legal rights over their usernames, the platform's terms of service state that accounts will only be removed in cases of trademark infringement. Hwang had created the Twitter account in 2007, a year after the platform's launch.

In response to the situation, Twitter moved Hwang's account to a new handle called "@x12345678998765." On Wednesday morning, Hwang expressed that everything had ended well.

However, the rebranding process may face legal complications, as other companies, including Meta and Microsoft, already hold intellectual property rights to the letter "X."

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben commented on the matter, stating that there's a high likelihood Twitter could face lawsuits from various parties. He revealed that he had identified nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that already cover the letter "X" across a wide range of industries, reported The Telegraph.

Elon Musk's vision for X involves transforming it into a "super app" that encompasses not only Twitter's existing social networking and messaging features but also payments, banking, and video functionalities. The rebranding has certainly garnered attention, but it remains to be seen how the legal challenges and public reception will play out.