Elon Musk's X Corp, PR firm settle lawsuit over 'X' trademark

Feb 20 - Elon Musk's X Corp has settled a lawsuit brought by advertising firm Multiply, which had claimed the social media platform infringed its trademark when it re-branded from Twitter to X in 2023.

The companies said in a joint filing in California federal court on Wednesday that they had settled the case without providing further details.

Multiply CEO Dan Baum said on Thursday that the dispute had been "amicably resolved." Spokespeople and attorneys for X did not immediately respond on Thursday to a request for comment and more information.

Tesla's billionaire CEO Musk rebranded Twitter as X after buying the platform in 2023. Hundreds of other companies own "X" trademarks, and Musk's X is still facing a separate infringement lawsuit from marketing firm X Social Media.

Virginia-based Multiply has created social-media ad campaigns for drink brands including Arizona, Corona and Liquid Death. Multiply sued X Corp last year, alleging that it caused consumer confusion by using "X" to advertise social media marketing services that compete with Multiply's.

Multiply said it adopted its "X" branding in 2019 and owns a federal trademark covering its "X" logo. It had asked the court to force X Corp to stop using the "X" mark and requested an unspecified amount of monetary damages.

X responded in a court filing that Multiply's "X" trademark was invalid because it failed to function as a source identifier for Multiply's services.

"The Multiply Symbol is just that—a visual indicator to signify the multiplication symbol that dates back to the 1600s," X said.

The company also said its use of "X" was unlikely to confuse consumers and called the lawsuit "nothing more than an opportunistic attempt to extract money from X Corp."

The case is DB Communications LLC d/b/a Multiply v. X Corp, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:24-cv-04402.