Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has been accused of IP theft, confronted privateness inquiries in Europe, and has been the goal of an infinite cyberattack. Now, it seems the corporate has a brand new headache on its fingers: a U.S. trademark battle.
On Tuesday, DeepSeek filed an utility with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in search of to trademark its AI chatbot apps, merchandise, and instruments. But it was a hair too late. Thirty-six hours earlier, one other agency had filed for the trademark “DeepSeek”: a Delaware-based firm going by the title “Delson Group Inc.”
Delson Group asserts that it has been promoting DeepSeek-branded AI merchandise since early 2020. In its utility, the corporate lists its handle as a house in Cupertino, and its CEO and founder as an individual named Willie Lu.
Lu, who coincidentally graduated from the identical college as DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, Zhejiang University, claims on his LinkedIn profile to be a “semi-retired” consulting professor at Stanford and an FCC advisor. Lu appears to have spent most of his profession within the wi-fi trade. Other internet pages TechCrunch uncovered via the e-mail handle listed within the trademark submitting point out Lu’s lectures and coaching programs on wi-fi requirements.
Lu additionally hosts a “DeepSeek” instructional course in Las Vegas on “AI Super-Intelligence,” beginning at $800 a ticket — which options prominently on the web site linked in Delson Group’s trademark submitting. The web site claims that Lu has “about 30 years’ experience in ICT [information and communications technology] and AI fields.”
When reached for remark on the trademark submitting electronic mail, Lu advised TechCrunch that he could be keen to “meet and speak” in Palo Alto or Saratoga. (This reporter relies in NYC.) Lu didn’t reply to a follow-up request.
A seek for “Delson Group” within the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Inquiry System turns up greater than two dozen disputes between Lu and organizations, together with the GSMA, Tencent, and TracFone Wireless. Delson has deserted a few of the emblems it filed for, or in any other case canceled its pending functions.
A broader search utilizing the USPTO’s Trademark Search software yields a listing of 28 emblems registered beneath Delson, just a few of that are manufacturers belonging to main Chinese corporations. Delson has a trademark for “Geely,” for instance, the Chinese automotive agency, and “China Mobile,” the Hong Kong-based telecommunications supplier.
The sample suggests a historical past of trademark squatting — registering a trademark with the intention of promoting it later or driving on a model’s reputation. In one of many best-known examples of trademark squatting, Chinese businessman Zhan Baosheng efficiently trademarked the English title “Tesla” in China, in addition to Tesla’s “T” emblem, font, and Chinese transliterated title. (Baosheng later settled with Tesla for an undisclosed quantity.)
Be that as it could, DeepSeek’s choices are fairly restricted at this juncture. Under U.S. legislation, the very first consumer of a trademark is usually thought-about that trademark’s rightful proprietor, except it may be confirmed that the trademark was registered in dangerous religion.
“While DeepSeek might probably search a coexistence settlement if they will show they function in numerous points of AI than Delson Group, the U.S. firm has a number of benefits,” Josh Gerben, an legal professional and the founding father of Gerben IP, a legislation observe specializing in IP points, advised TechCrunch. “They filed first, they declare earlier use — 2020 versus DeepSeek’s claimed 2023 begin date — [and] they’ve a stay web site exhibiting AI-related actions, together with coaching occasions.”
Gerben stated that Delson Group would possibly even have the ability to declare “reverse confusion” because of DeepSeek’s fast rise to prominence, or sue to dam DeepSeek from persevering with to make use of its model title within the U.S.
“DeepSeek may very well have a trademark downside within the United States the place there might be this prior rights holder — Delson Group — and that prior rights holder might have an excellent case for trademark infringement,” Gerben stated.
It wouldn’t be the primary time an AI firm has run up towards trademark headwinds.
OpenAI didn’t trademark “GPT” final February after the USPTO dominated that the time period was too generic. Over the previous a number of months, OpenAI has additionally been preventing technologist and entrepreneur Guy Ravine for the fitting to make use of “Open AI,” which Ravine claims he pitched as part of an “open supply” AI imaginative and prescient round 2015 — OpenAI’s founding 12 months.
