The issue with Twitter’s rebranding to X could face legal complexities due to the existence of prior trademarks owned by companies such as Meta and Microsoft. Elon Musk’s decision to rename the social media platform could potentially lead to legal challenges as the letter X is already widely used and protected in various industries through nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations.

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben predicts that there is a high likelihood of Twitter facing lawsuits from someone over the use of the letter X. The concerns arise because owners of trademarks have the right to claim infringement if they believe that the use of a similar branding could confuse consumers. Possible remedies for infringement range from financial damages to blocking the usage of the conflicting mark, Reuters reported.

Microsoft holds an X trademark since 2003, primarily related to communications related to its Xbox video-game system. On the other hand, Meta Platforms, which has its Threads platform competing with Twitter, possesses a federal trademark registered in 2019, covering a blue-and-white letter “X” for software and social media domains.

The companies in question, Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter, did not provide any comments in response to requests.

Meta has faced its share of intellectual property challenges when it rebranded from Facebook, encountering trademark lawsuits from investment firm Metacapital and virtual-reality company MetaX. It also settled another lawsuit over its new infinity-symbol logo.

If Elon Musk successfully rebrands Twitter as X, there is a possibility that other entities may also lay claim to the letter ‘X’ for their own purposes. Due to the difficulty in protecting a single letter, especially one as widely used commercially as ‘X’, Twitter’s protection for their X logo is likely to be limited to very similar graphics, according to trademark attorney Douglas Masters from law firm Loeb & Loeb.

Previous reports indicated that both Meta and Microsoft have their respective X trademarks in place.