'Weixin' trademark bid denied

Though Trunkbow Asia Pacific (Shandong) Co filed to trademark the name Weixin before Tencent Inc rolled out its wildly popular social media software, a ruling by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court has upheld administrative denials of the application.

Weixin is known as WeChat in English.

Trunkbow developed a communication app in 2010 that shows a caller's phone number and location, and named it "Weixin", according to reports in the Beijing Morning Post.

The company in Shandong province applied for the trademark with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in 2010 and was given preliminary approval in August 2011.

Yet after Zhang Xinhe, a third party in the trademark case, raised an objection to the application later that year, the trademark office rescinded Trunkbow's approval in 2013.

The office ruled that the Weixin mobile messaging app from Tencent launched in January 2011 rapidly gained widespread use. If Trunkbow succeeded in using the name for information and call services, it would possibly mislead WeChat users, said the office.

Trunkbow then appealed the ruling to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The board upheld the original denial in October last year.

Trunkbow followed with a lawsuit against the trademark review board asking the court to overturn the decision.

The company claimed that its use of Weixin and the trademark application were both earlier than filings by Tencent.

In response, the court said though the company applied for registration earlier, Tencent launched Weixin before the preliminary approval of Trunkbow's application.

The app now has some 600 million registered users, according to the Xinhua news agency.

With many government agencies, schools and banks using public Weixin accounts, Trunkbow could cause inconvenience and even damage if its application was approved, found the court.

In its March 11 ruling, the court said that the first people or organizations that apply for trademark registrations are usually approved as rightful owners, but public interests need to be factored into the decision.

If Trunkbow succeeded in registering the Weixin trademark, it would have negative effects on numerous Weixin users, the court found.

Trunkbow said it will appeal the ruling to the Beijing High People's Court, Beijing Morning Post reported.