Twitter wins 'tweet' trademark ownership battle

The word "tweet" is to become a registered trademark of the micro-blogging website Twitter, company executives have said.

They said Twitter had resolved a long-running legal dispute over ownership of the term by US advertising company Twittad which allows a network of 27,000 Twitter users to be paid to tweet advertisements from their private accounts.

"We've arrived at a resolution with Twittad that recognises consistent use of Tweet while supporting the continued success of Twitter ecosystem partners like Twittad," 'The Daily Telegraph' online quoted Twitter spokeswoman Lynn Fox as saying.

Twittad was the first to lay claim to "tweet" word in 2008 when it trademarked the phase "Let Your Ad Meet Tweets". It later argued that because Twitter's own users had come up with the term themselves it was entitled to seek ownership.

This week, James Eliason, the chief executive of Twittad, revealed that Twitter had agreed to drop a lawsuit against his company which sought to stop Twittad obtaining trademark of the word.

In return, Twittad, based in Iowa, would transfer its registered trademark of "tweet" to Twitter, he said.

He, however, declined to disclose whether Twitter had reached a paid settlement with Twittad, citing confidentiality agreement between the companies.

The social networking service Twitter allows people to post or "tweet" messages of up to 140 characters online. The site currently publishes more than 200 million tweets a day.