A Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company called DeepSeek is facing several significant challenges. They have been accused of stealing intellectual property, are under investigation for privacy issues in Europe, and have also experienced a major cyberattack. Now, they are dealing with a new problem: a trademark dispute in the United States.
Recently, DeepSeek applied to trademark its AI chatbot applications, products, and tools in the U.S. However, they were a bit late to the game. Just a day and a half earlier, another company, Delson Group Inc., based in Delaware, had already submitted an application for the same trademark name, “DeepSeek.”
Delson Group claims it has been selling AI products under the DeepSeek name since early 2020. The company is registered at a residential address in Cupertino, California, and its CEO is a man named Willie Lu. Interestingly, Lu graduated from the same university as DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, which is Zhejiang University.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Lu describes himself as a “semi-retired” consulting professor at Stanford University and an advisor for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). His career has mostly focused on the wireless industry. TechCrunch, a technology news site, found that Lu has been involved in giving lectures and training on wireless communication standards.
Additionally, Lu runs a course called “DeepSeek” in Las Vegas that teaches about “AI Super-Intelligence,” with tickets starting at $800. This course is prominently featured on the website linked to Delson Group’s trademark application. The site states that Lu has around 30 years of experience in information and communications technology (ICT) and AI.
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When contacted about the trademark application, Lu expressed a willingness to meet and discuss the situation in person, although he did not respond to a follow-up request for more information.
A search into Delson Group reveals a history of disputes over trademarks, with Lu having been involved in more than two dozen conflicts with various organizations, including major companies like Tencent and TracFone Wireless. Some of the trademarks he has applied for have been abandoned or canceled.
Looking deeper into Delson Group’s trademark history, it turns out they have registered 28 trademarks, some of which belong to well-known Chinese companies. For instance, they hold trademarks for “Geely,” a Chinese car manufacturer, and “China Mobile,” a telecommunications company based in Hong Kong. This raises suspicions that Delson Group may be engaging in “trademark squatting,” which is when someone registers a trademark with the intention of selling it later or benefiting from the popularity of an existing brand. A famous case of this is when a Chinese businessman trademarked the name “Tesla” in China and later settled with Tesla for an undisclosed amount.
Currently, DeepSeek’s situation is quite challenging. In the U.S., trademark law typically favors the first person to use a trademark. Since Delson Group claims they started using the “DeepSeek” name in 2020, while DeepSeek claims to have started in 2023, Delson Group may have the upper hand. They also have a working website that shows they are actively involved in AI-related activities.
Josh Gerben, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property issues, mentioned that DeepSeek could potentially negotiate a coexistence agreement if they can prove they operate in different areas of AI than Delson Group. However, Delson Group has several advantages, including their earlier application and proof of use in the market.
Gerben also pointed out that Delson Group could argue “reverse confusion,” suggesting that DeepSeek’s growing popularity could confuse consumers and harm Delson Group’s brand. This means Delson Group might even be able to take legal action to stop DeepSeek from using the name in the U.S.
This isn’t the first time an AI company has faced challenges with trademarks. For example, OpenAI tried to trademark “GPT” but was denied because the term was considered too generic. OpenAI is also involved in a dispute with a technologist named Guy Ravine over the right to use the name “Open AI,” which Ravine claims he proposed in 2015, the same year OpenAI was founded.
