Apple stole #TakeNote from Utah Jazz basketball team

Apple's hash flag shown on the Utah Jazz Twitter profile

While hashtags aren't exactly the property of a company or entity, they can be used for advertising campaigns and tied to a for-pay hash flag. Apple tends to tie a hashtag and official hash flag to an event or announcement.

Hash flags are little animated icons that appear after a sponsored hashtag. Every NBA team uses sponsored hashtags to promote social media content, and the Utah Jazz promotes #TakeNote.

However, without any warning to the NBA team or its social media counterpart, Apple's CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a promotion for upcoming iPad announcements using #TakeNote. The hashtag trended under sports and basketball on Twitter for a while before the official Apple hash flag went live.

An original tweet by Utah Jazz said, "Well, this is awkward." It has since been deleted.

To make matters more interesting, Tuesday, October 18, begins the NBA 2022 to 2023 basketball season. The official team hashtags do not have sponsored hash flags during offseason, but Apple has stolen an official hashtag the morning it would have been taken by the Utah Jazz.

The phrase "Take Note" isn't new to the team. It was briefly retired before being revived in 2019. It is still shown as the official hashtag at the top of the team's Twitter profile despite having an Apple hashflag.

It isn't clear what the Utah Jazz will do in response. The team seemingly discovered the hashtag takeover the moment it happened. Perhaps they can return to their less popular #TeamIsEverything in the meantime.