China’s internet technology giant ByteDance has lost a trademark case against Singapore-incorporated Dol Technology, a provider of voice-over internet protocol services and software for interactive digital media.
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), a statutory board under the Ministry of Law in charge of the registration and the administration of IP rights in the city-state, announced its decision on 14 June rejecting ByteDance’s opposition against Dol Tech’s trademark registration applications in May and August 2021.
ByteDance, the parent company of multinational social media platform TikTok, filed notices of opposition against the applications in December 2021 and January 2022, a copy of the legal decision seen by Asia Business Law Journal shows.
The Chinese internet tech company asserted that the application mark “Tiki” applied by Dol Tech for registration for different goods and services was similar to its word mark “TikTok” and device mark. ByteDance also argued that Dol Tech was related to one of its direct Chinese competitors, Joyy Inc, which runs a short-form video sharing platform called Likee that was very similar to its TikTok platform.
But, in its decision issued on Friday, the IPOS has dismissed ByteDance’s allegations by stating that the Chinese tech company’s opposition has failed on all the grounds needed for a successful case.
Principal Assistant Registrar Mark Lim cited, among other things, that the marks were “visually and conceptually dissimilar” and “aurally similar only to a low extent”. Lim agreed that ByteDance’s word mark was “well-known to the public at large in Singapore”, but concluded that its device mark and composite mark were “not” well-known to the extent of the general public in the city-state.
Following the dismissal of the opposition, the IPOS has awarded Dol Tech costs of SGD9,000 (USD6,671) inclusive of disbursements. In an emailed response to an inquiry by Asia Business Law Journal, the IPOS says that an appeal to the legal decision can be made to the general division of the High Court of Singapore.
