Twitter is apparently starting to get more protective of its assets as a developer using the Twitter API for an application was contacted by a company representative and asked to make changes to the interface, which was very similar to that on the main site, but, interestingly, also asked to remove any reference to the word “tweet,” for which Twitter recently applied for a trademark.

In an email sent by Twitter to the developer, and then forwarded to TechCrunch, the company warned him of the issues.

"Hi,

Twitter, Inc is uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own. How can we go about having you change your UI to better differentiate your offering from our own?

Thanks."

There is no official word from Twitter but a move like this could spell trouble for a huge number of applications, some of them the most popular third-party apps related to the service, like TweetDeck, TweetMeme or Tweetie. The reason why the word “tweet” is so popular with Twitter apps is exactly because the company forbids the use of the term “twitter.” And now it looks like it plans to do the same for “tweet.”

But while protecting the name “Twitter” and distancing your brand from unverifiable third-party apps is a smart and safe move, for the term “tweet” things are not so clear-cut. For one, the company didn't even come up with it as it was put forward, popularized and participially standardized by the community, as is the case with many Twitter features. And secondly, it's the third-party apps and services that made Twitter into what it is now so taking the development community head on instead of catering to it is definitely the wrong move.