What you need to know about TiPJAR and Elon Musk's X intellectual property rights battle

Social media platform Twitter which is now known simply as 'X' is again in the news after the official name change, as the cashless tipping platform TiPJAR has won a legal battle against Elon Musk's company.

Founded by James Brown, TiPJAR is a leading UK company associated with cashless tipping in the UK hospitality industry. Last week, TiPJAR announced that it has won a legal battle related to its trademark against the social media giant X.

The tech world has dubbed this long battle of trademarks between the two tech companies as "underdog vs giant". In a Tech on Toast podcast, TiPJAR elaborated on the issue which dealt with the "Tip Jar" appellation.

The Munich Court in Germany ruled in favour of TiPJAR saying that the Tip Jar emblem can't be used for payment services by Twitter (now X). The court upheld the trademark to James Brown's company TiPJAR, making it illegal for other companies like X to use it.

Earlier, the social media platform X was using the "Tip Jar" emblem for payments in Germany. Although the mandate is Germany-specific, it's a setback for Elon Musk's X which got into trouble with other tech giants like Facebook and Microsoft recently. Recently, Musk and Zuckerberg were in the news after they offered to do a cage fight.

The court also imposed a €250,000 fine per infraction of the injunction if Elon Musk's X uses the Tip Jar emblem.

The verdict is likely to have global ramifications as the internet has no geographical boundaries, making it crucial that Twitter (now X) changes its branding efforts in order to avoid penalties in case anyone in the world comes across advertisements with the Tip Jar emblem on Twitter. It could give them the impression that the emblem is part of the Twitter structure.

TiPJAR got flooded by spam messages

This trademark battle unfolded when Elon Musk's company X launched the Tip Jar functionality on the social media platform. The Tip Jar facility on X gave Twitter users the ability to integrate any third-party payment services into their Twitter profiles.

But James Brown's company TiPJAR opposed this feature available on Twitter as it holds the trademark for tipping through the emblem in US, UK and EU. TiPJAR didn't want its rights to be trampled upon and suffer a loss because of the change in Twitter policy.

Speaking about the trademark issue, the founder of TiPJAR James Brown said that the company's phones, emails and social channels went into overdrive the moment Elon Musk's company X announced the new Twitter feature. Brown termed the whole experience "surreal" as TiPJAR was flooded with congratulatory messages for collaborating with Twitter.

In such a circumstance, TiPJAR wanted to safeguard and protect its brand identity from possible legal fracas. The company chose Germany for this trademark legal battle because of its cost-efficient and streamlined legal process.

Elon Musk's X offered to purchase the trademark

The lawyers representing Elon Musk's company X had initially offered a discussion to decide on a monetary deal to buy off the trademark from TiPJAR after a preliminary verdict went against Twitter.

However, TiPJAR declined the offer in demand of a higher sum of money and a meeting with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Elon Musk's X maintained its silence on the trademark issue and didn't give out any information regarding if they did market research about the trademark before launching the service on Twitter. TiPJAR took swift action after that, asking for the local court's injunction to rebrand the Twitter feature. In response to that, Elon Musk's company X had to rebrand the Twitter feature to Twitter Tips in order to avoid punitive fines.

The importance of intellectual property rights upheld

Despite the change in nomenclature Twitter had to deal with additional penalties for non-compliance because of the remnants of "Tip Jar" on the social media platform. Ultimately, Elon Musk's company X had to reimburse TiPJAR for the legal costs.

Although Twitter contested the verdict of the regional court at the Munich Court there too the verdict went against them as the Munich Court asked Twitter to cover TiPJAR's legal expenses.

Speaking about the matter James Brown highlighted how small businesses need to protect their intellectual property rights. The company's battle against a tech giant like Elon Musk's company X made it acquire trademark rights in major jurisdictions.

TiPJAR now has trademarks in 70 nations all over the world from Brazil to Japan to South Korea, said Brown.