

Ask HN: What do you do if someone has your startup's twitter name? - Rabidgremlin

So we have just discovered that someone else already has "our" twitter name ( http://twitter.com/splitthebill ) !<p>Bad planning we know, but what would you do? Ask the current owner if you can have it? Use an abbreviation? Something else?
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brk
On the list of things to be worried about, this just seems to rank a few
notches after what font you should use for the names on the conference room
doors.

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xist
How important to the business plan is the twitter name? I dont think you will
get it from twitter just because you want it.

If twitter is vital to your business suceeding/marketing plan, then maybe
something like "splitthebilldotcom", to make it look "official".

I see you asked twitter, but have you asked/received a response from the user
yet?

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Rabidgremlin
The twitter account will be used more for status/news then for marketing...

Other then sending the user a DM (which they are unlikley to answer on an
inactive account) we have no obvious way of contacting the owner...

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paulgb
Do you have a trademark on the name? If you do, contact twitter and they will
give it to you (I worked for a company that did this). Even if you don't, it's
worth a try contacting twitter since the account seems inactive.

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Rabidgremlin
No trademark (in the US). Have sent an email to twitter support. Not holding
my breath however.

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jmonegro
Oh, since it's pretty much dead, contact twitter and let them know that's your
startup's name.

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yan
Has anyone had any luck requesting transfers with non-brand names that have
been dead for years? I tried contacting twitter, the account owner, other
twitter reps and tried their web forms, all to nothing.

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Rabidgremlin
BTW we launched our alpha today: <http://blog.split-the-bill.com/its-alive-45>

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Rabidgremlin
Just an update. Got no response from twitter, so we went with @split_the_bill

