Operation Bluebird, a Virginia-based startup seeking to revive the Twitter name and logo, has launched a new social media platform, Twitter.now, despite an ongoing trademark dispute with X Corporation.

Stephen Coates, co-founder of Operation Bluebird and former general counsel of Twitter, said the company decided to proceed with the launch after waiting months for a ruling in the legal dispute.

“We are a small company, we have investors, and we have a product,” Coates told Ars Technica on Wednesday.

“And we have waited months and months to launch, and we are not going to wait anymore.”

Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 and later changed the company’s name to X. Coates and his colleagues subsequently argued that the former Twitter identity and intellectual property had been abandoned.

Operation Bluebird then sought to claim the Twitter trademarks, but X Corporation sued the startup late last year and asked a federal court in Delaware to block the launch of a new Twitter platform.

At a hearing in April 2026, US District Court Judge Colm Connolly reportedly issued a tentative ruling indicating that X may have abandoned intellectual property claims relating to the word “tweet”, the Twitter bird logo and potentially the “Twitter” name.

However, the judge has yet to issue a written order.

Coates said Operation Bluebird interpreted the judge’s comments as sufficient grounds to proceed with the launch.

“It’s our opinion that X has abandoned its rights on the Twitter and tweet trademarks,” he said.

Operation Bluebird has sought to distinguish Twitter.now from Musk’s X, saying on its website that the platform is being rebuilt around trust and has no affiliation with X Corporation.

Twitter.now currently has hundreds of users and retains features associated with the original Twitter, including replies and reposts.

The platform also features an automated fact-checking tool called Vera, a Gemini-based “veracity engine” designed to analyse posts in real time.

Coates said the startup wants to create a social media platform that promotes free expression while limiting the spread of harmful or inaccurate content.

“Our first goal is to see if we can truly bring back a town square that’s safer and less harmful,” he said.

Josh Gerben, a Washington-based trademark attorney who has followed the case, said Operation Bluebird may have a “workable legal theory” for arguing that X abandoned the Twitter trademark.

However, he cautioned that the dispute remains unresolved.

“It was one thing to file the trademark application; now that they’ve launched, there will be another response from [X Corporation],” Gerben said.

He added that the launch had significantly escalated the dispute, describing it as “a really interesting escalation of the case”. (Arise News)