On February 24, 2025, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced that it rejected 63 trademark applications attempting to maliciously register DeepSeek and graphic. CNIPA stated that, “some agencies are suspected of providing illegal services, with obvious intentions of ‘riding the wave’ and seeking improper benefits. CNIPA resolutely cracked down on such malicious applications.”

China has previously rejected en masse applications and ex-officio cancelled trademarks that have been maliciously applied for and registered, respectively. For example, in 2022, CNIPA cancelled trademarks for Olympic mascots and athletes for “infringing on the personality rights and other legitimate rights and interests of others, has caused significant adverse social impact, and damaged the good image of China’s strict protection of intellectual property rights.” CNIPA rejected 429 trademark applications, including those for Eileen Gu (谷爱凌 and homonyms). CNIPA also cancelled, ex-officio, 43 trademarks, 20 of which were for Eileen Gu.

The original announcement and full list of rejected applications is available here (Chinese only).