Operation Bluebird, a small Virginia startup, officially unveiled Twitter.now on Monday, positioning it as a revival of the social network that Elon Musk bought in 2022 and later renamed X. Cofounder Stephen Coates told Ars Technica, "We are a small company, we have investors, and we have a product. And we have waited months and months to launch, and we are not going to wait anymore."

The company's legal strategy hinges on the argument that when Musk rebranded Twitter to X and stopped using the Twitter name and bird logo for the core platform, those trademarks were effectively abandoned under U.S. law. Under the Lanham Act, a trademark is considered abandoned if its use is discontinued with intent not to resume. Operation Bluebird has been pursuing this theory since late 2025, when it first announced its intention to reclaim the Twitter brand.

The launch of Twitter.now comes with a fully functional social network, though details on user numbers or features remain limited. Coates emphasized that the team has built a product and secured investor backing, suggesting the project is more than a legal gambit. The startup has not disclosed its funding sources or the size of its user base.

X Corp., now operating under the X brand, has not publicly commented on the launch. Legal experts note that trademark abandonment cases are fact-intensive and often hinge on whether the original owner demonstrates intent to resume use. Musk has continued to use the X brand aggressively, which could undermine Operation Bluebird's claim. However, if X has not used the Twitter mark in commerce for several years and has no plans to do so, a court might find abandonment.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that X still holds the original Twitter trademark registrations. Operation Bluebird would need to either secure a license, win a court ruling of abandonment, or await the expiration of those registrations. The startup's use of the name "Twitter.now" — a domain it controls — may be an attempt to operate in a gray area while the legal status is resolved.

For now, the launch represents a bold bet that a beloved brand can be resurrected by outsiders, even as the original platform continues under a different name. Whether users will flock to a new Twitter clone — and whether X will take legal action — remain open questions.