Rumor has it that Apple has filed a petition to invalidate Huawei’s “Vision Pro” trademark

According to domestic media reports, the Vision Pro is expected to hit the Chinese market early, but Apple is preparing for its trademark rights.

The "Vision Pro" trademark in mainland China is currently in the hands of a number of domestic companies, including Wuxi Leming Vision Technology Co.

Apple's real problem lies in the "Vision Pro" trademark in the hands of Huawei. Its product categories include smart glasses (data processing), wearable computers, video monitors, head-mounted virtual reality devices, wearable video monitors, portable media players, headphones, etc., and Apple's headset has a direct conflict.

Public information shows that Huawei Technologies Co. applied for the trademark on May 16, 2019, and formally registered it on November 28, 2021, with the term of exclusive right ending on November 27, 2031.

It is worth noting that the status of Huawei's "Vision Pro" trademark is in the "revocation/invalidation application review", which means that someone has filed an invalidation application for the trademark, and the subject of this application is likely to be Apple.

According to supply chain sources, Apple's Vision Pro will go on sale in China in April at the earliest, and no later than May at the latest.

According to lawyers, trademark invalidation proceedings generally take a year to a year and a half, the results can also be filed after the administrative litigation, the first and second instance another year. This is obviously not a solution to Apple's "immediate needs". The safest thing for Apple to do is to avoid it.

After Apple uses the trademark "Apple Vision Pro", the possibility of the relevant public confusing this name with Huawei's products will be relatively small, but there is still a risk of similar trademark infringement.

In the opinion of professionals, "distinctiveness" is the correlation between the trademark name and the goods for which the trademark is used, and where the correlation between the two is strong, the distinctiveness will be weak, whereas where the correlation is weak, the distinctiveness will be strong. The word "Vision" is slightly less distinctive when used as a trademark for display devices, including mixed reality headsets.

So, Apple and Huawei's legal departments could still be in for a tussle in the near future.