Twitter trademark dispute forces Twitpic to close
Photo-sharing platform Twitpic is to shut down its services from 25 September following a trademark dispute with Twitter.
Twitpic’s demise came after they were served with a legal notice from Twitter demanding that it abandon its trademark application under pain of losing access to the code that allows its users to share snaps over Twitter.
In a blog post Twitpic founder Noah Everett said: “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.”
Twitpic was formed in the early days of the micro blog but has become increasingly peripheral as Twitter embeds its own functionality into the site directly.
A Twitter spokesperson told Time: “We’re sad to see Twitpic is shutting down. We encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service, as Twitpic has done for years, and we made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. Of course, we also have to protect our brand, and that includes trademarks tied to the brand.”
Before it closes for good Twitpic will launch a feature enabling members to export their hosted photos and videos.