Twitter’s attempt to trademark the word Tweet has been rejected.

As Twitter Bulletin mentioned a few months ago, Twitter submitted an application to the US patent and trademark office in order to claim the word, which describes the action of sending a 140 word message to followers.

It is claimed that the application didn’t go through due to three other firms- TweetMarks, Cotweet and Tweetphoto- all who also use the word and therefore may cause confusion.

However in a recent post on Twitter’s official blog, co-founder Biz Stone stressed that despite Twitter attempting to trademark use of the word, even if the trademark had been granted, they would not stop have stopped applications such as Tweetie and TweetDeck from using the word.

He added: “We have applied to trademark tweet because it is clearly attached to Twitter from a brand perspective but we have no intention of ‘going after’ the wonderful applications and services that use the word in their name when associated with Twitter… However, if we come across a confusing or damaging project, the recourse to act responsibly to protect both users and our brand is important”

Although this comes as a blow for the site, it’s not all bad news. Even without the trademark, the word Tweet has successfully made it’s way into the Associated Press’s style guide and into Australia’s Macquarie dictionary, as well as being globally connected to Twitter by users anyway.

Over the last few days there has been mounting confusion over the legality of using the word “tweet” as Twitter took action against certain third parties who where using the term in their applications, but it seems now the issue has been clarified via Twitter’s own Biz Stone over on the official blog, and the company don’t have a big an issue with third parties using the term as first thought:

“We have applied to trademark Tweet because it is clearly attached to Twitter from a brand perspective but we have no intention of “going after” the wonderful applications and services that use the word in their name when associated with Twitter. In fact, we encourage the use of the word Tweet. However, if we come across a confusing or damaging project, the recourse to act responsibly to protect both users and our brand is important.”

So it’s pretty straightforward, if you use the term “tweet” in a negative, damaging way Twitter will not be pleased, but beyond that everything is sweet. Just don’t forget, Tweet™.