Noah Everett founder of @Twitpic in a Tweet said, ” The photo sharing site launched in 2008 has been forced to shut after Twitter contacted them to either abandon its trademark application or risk losing access to their API. Twitpic’s trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009. — Noah Everett (@noaheverett) September 4, 2014 According to Everett, “We originally filed for our trademark in 2009 and our first use in commerce dates back to February 2008 when we launched. We encountered several hurdles and difficulties in getting our trademark approved even though our first use in commerce predated other applications, but we worked through each challenge and in fact had just recently finished the last one. During the “published for opposition” phase of the trademark is when Twitter reached out to our counsel and implied we could be denied access to their API if we did not give up our mark.” Twitpic says it does not have the resources to battle Twitter and have therefore decided to shut down Twitpic. Twitpic had to shut down because it was only needed before Twitter had it’s own native photo sharing features for its web and mobile apps. Twitpic will official go down September 25. This is an unexpected and hard announcement for us to make and we want to lay out what led us to this decision. A few weeks ago Twitter contacted our legal demanding that we abandon our trademark application or risk losing access to their API. This came as a shock to us since Twitpic has been around since early 2008, and our trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009. Here is some backstory on the history of our trademark: We originally filed for our trademark in 2009 and our first use in commerce dates back to February 2008 when we launched. We encountered several hurdles and difficulties in getting our trademark approved even though our first use in commerce predated other applications, but we worked through each challenge and in fact had just recently finished the last one. During the “published for opposition” phase of the trademark is when Twitter reached out to our counsel and implied we could be denied access to their API if we did not give up our mark. Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours. Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic. On a personal note I (@noaheverett) want to thank you for letting us be a part of your life and helping you share your experiences over the past 6 years, it’s truly been an honor. I have learned so much through running Twitpic over the years. Through the many mistakes I’ve made and lessons learned, to the bad days and the great days. Thank you again everyone…I will miss and cherish the days of Twitpic we had together.
