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In a big disappointment for the users of Twitpic, the photo sharing service will go offline completely with effect from September 25 after giving almost six years of service.
Twitpic was running into trademark dispute with the popular micro-blogging site Twitter, which had threatened the photo-sharing service provider to withdraw a trademark application or else it will lose access to their API.
Twitpic is a Twitter-integrated photo sharing service which relies on the micro-blogging site for its businesses.
“Twitter had contacted our legal team a few weeks ago demanding that we abandon our trademark application or risk losing access to their API,” Noah Everett, Twitpic’s founder, said.
Calling the complete shutdown of Twitpic as an ‘unexpected and hard demise’, Everett said, “This came as a shock to us since Twitpic has been around since early 2008.”
Meanwhile, Twitter also released a statement expressing sadness over the closure but maintained that at the same time they had to protect their brand name.
“We are sad to see Twitpic is shutting down. We encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service as Twitpic has done for years. We had also made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. But of course, we also have to protect our brand and that includes trademarks tied to the brand.” a Twitter spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the Twitpic founder said that their application was genuine and they were not wrong on their part as their trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009.
“We originally filed for our trademark in 2009 and our first use in commerce dates back to February 2008 when we launched. We encountered several hurdles and difficulties in getting our trademark approved even though our first use in commerce predated other applications, but we worked through each challenge and in fact had just recently finished the last one,” Everett said in the company’s blog post.
Before signing off, Twitpic will introduce an export tool through which the users would be able to export all their photos and videos.
