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Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been accused of IP theft<\/a>, faced privacy inquiries in Europe<\/a>, and has been the target of an enormous cyberattack<\/a>. Now, it appears the company has a new headache on its hands: a U.S. trademark conflict.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, DeepSeek filed an application<\/a> with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking to trademark its AI chatbot apps, products, and tools. But it was a hair too late. Thirty-six hours earlier, another<\/em> firm had filed for the trademark \u201cDeepSeek\u201d<\/a>: a Delaware-based company going by the name \u201cDelson Group Inc.\u201d <\/p>\n Delson Group asserts that it has been selling DeepSeek-branded AI products since early 2020. In its application, the company lists its address as a home in Cupertino, and its CEO and founder as a person named Willie Lu. <\/p>\n Lu, who coincidentally graduated from the same university as DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, Zhejiang\u00a0University, claims on his LinkedIn profile<\/a> to be a \u201csemi-retired\u201d consulting professor at Stanford and an FCC advisor. Lu seems to have spent most of his career in the wireless industry. Other<\/a> web pages<\/a> TechCrunch uncovered through the email address listed in the trademark filing mention Lu\u2019s lectures and training courses on wireless standards.<\/p>\n Lu also hosts a \u201cDeepSeek\u201d educational course in Las Vegas on \u201cAI Super-Intelligence,\u201d starting at $800 a ticket \u2014 which features prominently on the website linked in Delson Group\u2019s trademark filing<\/a>. The website claims that Lu has \u201cabout 30 years\u2019 expertise in ICT [information and communications technology] and AI fields.\u201d <\/p>\n When reached for comment at the trademark filing email, Lu told TechCrunch that he would be willing to \u201cmeet and talk\u201d in Palo Alto or Saratoga. (This reporter is based in NYC.) Lu didn\u2019t respond to a follow-up request.<\/p>\n Josh Gerben, an attorney and the founder of Gerben IP, a law practice specializing in IP issues, called Delson Group a \u201ctrademark squatter.\u201d Trademark squatters register trademarks with the intention of selling them for a profit later on \u2014 or riding on a brand\u2019s success.<\/p>\n Indeed, Lu seems to have a history of trademark squatting. A search for \u201cDelson Group\u201d<\/a> in the USPTO\u2019s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Inquiry System turns up more than two dozen disputes between Lu and organizations including the GSMA, Tencent, and TracFone Wireless.<\/p>\n Be that as it may, DeepSeek\u2019s options are quite limited at this juncture. Under U.S. law, the first user of a trademark is typically considered that trademark\u2019s rightful owner, Gerben noted, unless it can be proven the trademark was registered in bad faith.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile DeepSeek could potentially seek a coexistence agreement if they can prove they operate in different aspects of AI than Delson Group, the U.S. company has several advantages,\u201d Gerben said. \u201cThey filed first, they claim earlier use \u2014 2020 versus DeepSeek\u2019s claimed 2023 start date \u2014 [and] they have a live website showing AI-related activities, including training events.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerben said that Delson Group might even be able to claim \u201creverse confusion\u201d due to DeepSeek\u2019s rapid rise to prominence, or sue to block DeepSeek from continuing to use its brand name in the U.S. <\/p>\n \u201cDeepSeek may actually have a trademark problem in the United States where there could be this prior rights holder \u2014 Delson Group \u2014 and that prior rights holder may have a very good case for trademark infringement,\u201d Gerben said. <\/p>\n It wouldn\u2019t be the first time an AI company has run up against trademark headwinds. <\/p>\n OpenAI\u00a0failed to trademark \u201cGPT\u201d<\/a>\u00a0last February after the USPTO ruled that the term was too generic. Over the past several months, OpenAI has also been fighting<\/a> technologist and entrepreneur Guy Ravine for the right to use \u201cOpen AI,\u201d which Ravine claims he pitched as a part of an \u201copen source\u201d AI vision around 2015 \u2014 OpenAI\u2019s founding year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n