Apple faces trademark fight over the name 'Vision Pro' in China

China's Huawei registered a trademark for the name "Vision Pro" four years before the unveiling of the Apple Vision Pro — but it's not the first time Apple has had such naming issues.

Apple has long since moved away from prefixing new device names with an "i", but Apple TV was originally announced as iTV. Until, that is, the major British broadcaster ITV objected.

Then the name iPad was first licensed to Fujitsu, and "iOS" was a trademark of Cisco — as was "iPhone."

Now according to Gizmo China, the same thing is happening again with Apple Vision Pro. The publication has found an entry for "Vision Pro" in the China Trademark Network, filed by Huawei on May 16, 2019.

At present, that filing grants the company exclusive rights to the name from November 28, 2021, to November 27, 2031. The approved filing states that the name is to be used on products that include head-mounted virtual reality devices.

Currently, Huawei has product lines including the smart headset Vision Glass, and a series of devices called Huawei Vision Smart Screen. At present, it does not have a Vision Pro product.

In theory, then, Apple could have to change the name of the device for it to go on sale in China. Alternatively, it could simply not sell the device in that region — and Apple has said it will initially only launch the Apple Vision Pro in the US.

What's more likely to happen, though, is that Apple will press on with the name and at some point reach an agreement with Huawei. This is what has happened with all such cases, with the exception of ITV — which really could not lose the name it has been using since 1955.

35 Comments

avon b7 20 Years · 8046 comments

About 1 year ago

Yes, Huawei has been using the 'Vision' branding for a while now and specifically in AR glasses and smart screens too, so the Apple name does overlap slightly.

I'm currently interested in a Vision 3 to replace a Samsung TV if it gets a release in Spain. The previous model was available here.

We are talking about well known, commercial products (and not all of them are limited to China) so it is hard to believe Apple wasn't well aware of the situation.

It's possible that the issue has already been taken into account.

waveparticle 3 Years · 1497 comments

avon b7 said:

Yes, Huawei has been using the 'Vision' branding for a while now and specifically in AR glasses and smart screens too, so the Apple name does overlap slightly.

I'm currently interested in a Vision 3 to replace a Samsung TV if it gets a release in Spain. The previous model was available here.

We are talking about well known, commercial products (and not all of them are limited to China) so it is hard to believe Apple wasn't well aware of the situation.

It's possible that the issue has already been taken into account.

There are only a limited set of English words to describe a specific thing. To grant patent of a word to a company is not right. Especially if the word is extended to a family.

waveparticle said:

avon b7 said:

Yes, Huawei has been using the 'Vision' branding for a while now and specifically in AR glasses and smart screens too, so the Apple name does overlap slightly.

I'm currently interested in a Vision 3 to replace a Samsung TV if it gets a release in Spain. The previous model was available here.

We are talking about well known, commercial products (and not all of them are limited to China) so it is hard to believe Apple wasn't well aware of the situation.

It's possible that the issue has already been taken into account.

There are only a limited set of English words to describe a specific thing. To grant patent of a word to a company is not right. Especially if the word is extended to a family.

Yet lots of those limited words are present in trademarks.

In this particular case it is Vision Pro and it is taken for exactly the same product category as the Apple Vision Pro.

But then again, we used to have 'Apple Computer' and the fight with 'Apple music' .

How many different words are there for 'Apple'?

I don't disagree with you on the basics but that's how things are.

chutzpah 1 Year · 392 comments

waveparticle said:

avon b7 said:

Yes, Huawei has been using the 'Vision' branding for a while now and specifically in AR glasses and smart screens too, so the Apple name does overlap slightly.

I'm currently interested in a Vision 3 to replace a Samsung TV if it gets a release in Spain. The previous model was available here.

We are talking about well known, commercial products (and not all of them are limited to China) so it is hard to believe Apple wasn't well aware of the situation.

It's possible that the issue has already been taken into account.

There are only a limited set of English words to describe a specific thing. To grant patent of a word to a company is not right. Especially if the word is extended to a family.

You can't patent a name. You can trademark it, but that can be hard to do with very generic product names. As such, Apple doesn't trademark "Watch", they trademark "Apple Watch".

13485 6 Years · 379 comments

it would be quite rare--nearly impossible--for China to take something away from a domestic company, so Apple Vision it is. Besides, as soon as Huawei get its hand on a VisionPro they will have a copy in two weeks.