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Comment by Samuel_Michon | Hacker News Reader

According to Twitter, the measure was taken after months of warnings:

"[Twitter] had conversations with UberMedia, the developer of these applications, about policy violations since April 2010"

"[S]everal applications, including UberTwitter, twidroyd and UberCurrent, [...] have violated Twitter policies and trademarks in a variety of ways. These violations include, but aren’t limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money."

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UberMedia CEO Bill Gross says these are new issues Twitter never brought up before:

“We just talked to Twitter and discussed the various issues they raise. It took us by surprise because they didn’t raise them before."

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/18/ubermedia-bill-gross-twitte...

At the very least, UberMedia knew that Twitter frowns upon the use of the terms 'twitter' and 'tweet' in the name of a 3rd party app, as those are trademarks owned by Twitter.

But of course UberMedia had to act surprised, what other explanation could they have offered their users? Like with anyone caught cheating, the predictable response is "Really, this isn't what it looks like!".

"Twitter" sure, but if they discourage tweet, it's a new thing. You used to be encouraged to use tweet in your app name instead of twitter. Remember, they didn't officially call them "tweets" until recently(ish). You can even register twitter names with "tweet" in them, not "twitter."

From Twitter's Help Center [1]:

  You may:
  * Name your website, product, or application with something unique. Uses of Tw-, and Twit- are generally okay with us.
  * Feel free to include language on your site explaining that your application is built on the Twitter platform so people understand your product.
  * Use Tweet in the name of your application only if it is designed to be used exclusively with the Twitter platform.
  
  You may not:
  * Use Twitter in the name of your website or application.
  * Use just "Tweet" or "Tweet" with a simple letter or number combination (for example, 1Tweet, Tweet, Tweets).
  * Register a domain containing twitter (or misspellings of twitter).
  * Apply for a trademark with a name including Twitter or Tweet (or similar variations thereof).
  * Use Tweet in the name of your application if used with any other platform.

So the use of 'tweet' in an app name is allowed, if the app is a pure twitter client (not an app that integrates multiple social networks). You also have to agree not to trademark the name, if that name contains the word 'tweet'.

[1] http://support.twitter.com/articles/77641

As far as I know Twitter only discourages the use of Tweet in application names if you integrate with no applications other then Twitter like Facebook, Buzz, Foursqure, etc.

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