Apple’s recently unveiled $3,499 Vision Pro AR headset could have trouble entering the Chinese market – Apple could have trademark issues because Huawei registered the Vision Pro name in China a couple of years ago.
Image Source: Apple
According to the SCMP portal, a Chinese company registered the Vision Pro trademark with the local patent office CNIPA in 2021 for a wide range of product and service categories, including VR headsets and wearable displays. The application was submitted back in 2019, and in 2021 the company was granted exclusive rights to use the Vision Pro trademark for the next 10 years, until November 27, 2031. Such a legal framework promises significant problems for Apple when promoting its own AR headset in China. It is expected to start selling next year, first in the US and then in other countries.
At the same time, Vision Pro is actually the first truly new Apple product in the past decade. According to the head of Apple Tim Cook (Tim Cook), his appearance marks a new era in computer technology. According to SCMP, citing Chinese legal agencies, Huawei has every right to initiate legal action in China against Apple for promoting its headset.
However, Huawei, which has long been at the center of a trade war between China and the United States, may postpone claims or demand compensation after the product hits the market. Huawei, which was very successful in competing with Apple in the smartphone market before the US sanctions against it, has already released some consumer products under the Vision brand, including Vision Glass glasses last December, as well as Vision series smart TVs .
The two companies have already been involved in a legal battle with each other – in 2021, Apple failed to force Huawei to stop using the MatePod name. Apple claimed that the name was extremely similar to the names of its own products, such as the iPod, EarPods and AirPods.
Experts do not exclude that now Apple may resort to the already tried and tested practice of using a different name – in 2016, the Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch was able to block the use of the iWatch trademark in the UK, after which Cupertino decided to register the Apple Watch. For example, now the company may well register the Apple Vision trademark in China, since the word Apple itself is well recognizable in the context of the company’s activities, and the word Vision is unlikely to be protected by the courts, since it is not “distinctive”.
