There's a new Twitter in town, even though a judge has yet to rule on a trademark injunction

"The public square is open again, and definitely not affiliated with X in any way."

Twitter is back — well, sort of. A group of folks led by Stephen Coates, the former legal counsel for the original Twitter, have just introduced a new version of the social media platform . It's running right now under the URL Twitter.now .

This has been brewing for a while now , thanks to a startup called Operation Bluebird. The new Twitter is mostly blue, like the original, and features a bird as the official logo. This bird is slightly different from the old one, as it seems to have some additional plumage.

The launch happened as a judge continues to weigh a preliminary injunction requested by Elon Musk and X as part of an ongoing trademark lawsuit. "We have waited months and months to launch, and we are not going to wait anymore," Coates told Ars Technica .

Operation Bluebird has repeatedly stated that this project is legal because Musk quickly changed the name and logo of Twitter to X upon purchasing it back in 2022 . They say that the Twitter identity and IP were abandoned, thus allowing something like the new Twitter to exist. Musk sued the group via a federal judge in Delaware, a state that's known for prioritizing big business .

This case is still working its way through the court, but District Court Judge Colm Connolly seemed to suggest that it would eventually end in Operation Bluebird's favor. He noted in a preliminary ruling back in April that he has not "found that X adduced credible evidence of use of 'tweet' or the bird logo."

Coates is operating as the legal counsel for the new entity, the same role he had at Twitter. He recently stated that the judge's preliminary ruling gave them the go-ahead. "It's our opinion that X has abandoned its rights on the Twitter and tweet trademarks," he said.

The new site clearly distances itself from X, stating in its branding that it's "not affiliated with X Corp." Coates seconded this sentiment in a LinkedIn post, saying that "the public square is open again, and definitely not affiliated with X in any way. Whatsoever."