Twitter sues Twittad over use of 'tweet'

The micro-blogging platform is taking legal action against Twittad, which sells advertising on Twitter, to prevent it from using the word "tweet" in its registered trademark "Let Your Ad Meet Tweets"

Twitter complained to a Californian court last week that the registration, "unfairly exploits the widespread association by the consuming public of the mark Tweet with Twitter, and threatens to block Twitter from its registration and legitimate uses of its own mark."

Twitter released a statement that said: "It is in the best interests of our users and developers for the meaning of ‘Tweet’ to be preserved to prevent any confusion, so we are taking action to protect its meaning."

The move to sue one of its third-party developers over the use of the word tweet comes months after Twitter acquired Tweetdeck, the London-based desktop application start-up for $40 (£24.8m).

Last week, Twitter unveiled it has 100m active users worldwide.