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TikTok-owner ByteDance’s latest trademark applications include ‘ByteCoffee’, ‘sofa concert’
- ByteDance recently filed applications to trademark the terms ‘ByteCoffee’ and ‘Shafa Yinyuehui’ (meaning ‘sofa concerts’ in Chinese)
- ByteCoffee is the name of an internal coffee stand at ByteDance’s headquarters, while TikTok sister app Douyin has an ongoing ‘sofa concerts’ event
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Chinese internet giant ByteDance, best known for its viral short video app TikTok, has recently filed new trademark applications in some unlikely categories: food and catering.
The company has applied to trademark the terms “ByteCoffee” and “Shafa Yinyuehui” (meaning “sofa concerts” in Chinese), according to records from the trademark office of China’s National Intellectual Property Administration.
The applications are still being processed, so details are unavailable, but the ByteCoffee trademark application falls under the category of food, while Shafa Yinyuehui has been filed under several categories including for computer software and catering services.
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A ByteDance spokeswoman said the ByteCoffee trademark “is for an internal cafe that serves its staff” while Shafa Yinyuehui is a live-streamed activity on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
As ByteDance faces challenges internationally, it has been turning more of its attention back to expanding in its home market. Its flagship international product, TikTok, was banned in India – previously the short video app’s No. 1 market – earlier this year, and it is also fighting a ban in the US while pending approval from both the Trump administration and Beijing for a deal with Oracle and Walmart over its US operations.
But Douyin has been doing better than ever, growing its number of daily active users 50 per cent from 400 million in January to 600 million in June.
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