DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model, was launched on January 20, shocking the technology circle and triggering a large number of "registration scrambles" within a short period of time. Apart from trademark registration, the Hong Kong Companies Registry also received a number of applications for registration of companies with names similar to DeepSeek in February.
Trademark registration is a measure to protect intellectual property rights. Ta Kung Pao has learned that Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd. submitted a trademark application in Hong Kong in January 16 this year, and the application is currently pending approval. It is understood that the Registrar of Companies in Hong Kong issued instructions to four companies at the end of February and the beginning of March respectively, requesting them to change their company names similar to DeepSeek by a specified date.
Four companies incorporated in January and February this year with the names "DeepSxxx Ltd.", "Deep Seaxxx Hong Kong Technology Co., Ltd.", "DeepSxxx (HK) Ltd." and "Deep Sxxx International (HK) Co. Ltd.", the Registrar of Companies issued a direction on March 3, 2025 requesting the change of company name.
Ta Kung Pao reporters yesterday went to the relevant addresses in Kwai Chung, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and Tai Kok Tsui respectively, and found that the door signs of the flats do not have the names of the relevant companies, and some of them show that they are business secretarial firms.
On January 30th, DeepSeek was accused of intellectual property theft, faced a privacy investigation in Europe, and was the target of a massive cyberattack, according to Xinhua Daily Telegraph, citing a TC report. Now, the company seems to be facing a new problem: a trademark dispute in the United States.
It was reported that DeepSeek filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 28, U.S. time for its AI chatbot applications, products and tools. However, 36 hours earlier, a Delaware-based company, Delson Group Inc. had filed the same trademark application. Delson Group claims to have been selling DeepSeek-branded AI products since the early 2020s, and its CEO and founder, Willie Lu, and DeepSeek's founder, Liang Wenfeng, both graduated from Zhejiang University.
Under U.S. law, the first user of a trademark is generally considered the rightful owner, unless it can be shown that the trademark was registered in bad faith.
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