China starts rebuff of various metaverse trademark applications amid rush to hype the internet’s next generation

The Chinese government has started rejecting various metaverse-related trademark applications, as authorities move to prevent abuse of the registration process amid the frenzied pace of submissions by many companies since last year.

Multiple trademark applications containing the word yuan yuzhou – translated as metaverse in Mandarin – have been denied registration by the National Intellectual Property Administration, according to the latest data from business and trademark registration tracking firm Tianyancha. Some of those refused registration were applications from video gaming giant NetEase, streaming video provider iQiyi and social commerce platform operator Xiaohongshu.

Applications filed by the likes of Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and ByteDance were still pending review by the regulator, according to information from Chinese business registration tracking platform Qichacha. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The recent action taken by China’s intellectual property (IP) regulator showed a deliberate strategy to deal with the rush of metaverse-related applications, while preventing trademark squatting and misunderstanding among consumers, according to a person inside the agency who declined to be named on Monday. This person, who has no authority to comment on official matters, indicated that the procedure for a second review of an application that was denied might take six to eight months to complete. Some 153 denied applications are now awaiting second review as of Monday, according to Tianyancha.

About 1,510 mainland Chinese companies, mostly in the technology sector, have recently applied to register trademarks related to the metaverse – the concept of a shared virtual environment that users access via the internet – according to a report on Sunday by Chinastarmarket.cn, an affiliate of the state-backed Shanghai United Media Group, citing data from Tianyancha. That number was up from the 130 companies which filed applications four months ago, according to Tianyancha.