The Trademark Squatter Economy: Who Is Racing to Register the Most Famous Names in Tech

DeepSeek went viral on January 27, 2025. Six days later, at least 10 third-party trademark applications for DEEPSEEK had appeared across five offices: USPTO, EUIPO, CIPO, IP Australia, and IPI Switzerland. By the time DeepSeek's own legal team could have reasonably drafted a filing strategy, a Hong Kong company called Marchi Service Limited had already applied to register DEEPSEEK at the USPTO for clothing. That application is now a registered US trademark.

This is trademark squatting at scale. It operates on speed, class strategy, and jurisdictional gaps. And it's accelerating.

Signa's production database covers 14M+ trademark records across 21 offices. Searching for exact matches of famous tech brand names and filtering out the legitimate brand owners reveals systematic trademark squatting examples across every major tech brand: a network of entities, from solo filers to professional operations, racing to claim the world's most recognizable names.

The 6-Day Land Rush: How Fast Squatters Move

The window between a brand going viral and squatters filing applications is shrinking measurably.

CHATGPT: OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022. On December 31, 2022, a French individual named Eloi Castarede made the first CHATGPT trademark filing at EUIPO. Five weeks. That was considered fast. Over the following months, 30+ non-OpenAI CHATGPT filings accumulated globally, from entities in China, the US, and across Europe.

DEEPSEEK: DeepSeek's R1 model went viral on January 27, 2025. By February 2, at least 10 third-party applications had landed across five trademark offices on four continents. Not five weeks. Six days. In Australia alone, three or more filers submitted DEEPSEEK applications within a 48-hour window.

The contrast is stark. CHATGPT drew squatters in weeks. DEEPSEEK drew them in days. The playbook is the same, but execution has accelerated, likely because the CHATGPT wave taught filers that speed matters in first-to-file jurisdictions.

What triggers this rush isn't market cap or revenue. It's consumer virality. STARLINK, SpaceX's satellite internet service, is a massive business but had only 5 non-SpaceX trademark filings in the dataset. CHATGPT had 30+. DEEPSEEK hit double digits in under a week. The brands that generate mainstream buzz, the ones non-technical people suddenly ask about, attract squatters. Cultural penetration, not financial valuation, is the signal. The same dynamic plays out across AI brand disputes more broadly.

First-to-file trademark systems reward this behavior. In most jurisdictions outside the US, the first entity to file a trademark application has priority, regardless of who used the name first commercially. Speed is a legal advantage, and trademark squatting in first-to-file systems is nearly impossible to prevent after the fact.

The Professional Squatters: A Case Study from Belgrade

Most trademark squatting is opportunistic. Someone sees a trending name, files an application, hopes for the best. But the data reveals something more structured.

CT Trademarks d.o.o. Beograd, a Serbian entity, holds 68+ trademark registrations. The portfolio reads like a curated list of globally famous brands, registered across multiple offices and carefully distributed across Nice classes (the international system for categorizing the goods and services a trademark covers).

Their TESLA registrations in Canada are the clearest example: washing machines, televisions, kitchen appliances. These fall into Classes 7 (machines), 9 (electronics), and 11 (household appliances). Filings date back to 2021, and many are active registrations, not just applications.

A historical note is important here. "Tesla" was a Yugoslav consumer electronics brand that predates Tesla Inc. by decades. Serbian entities filing TESLA marks for electronics may be continuing prior rights rather than squatting in the conventional sense. The data shows the filings. Readers should draw their own conclusions about intent.

That said, the pattern extends beyond Tesla. CT Trademarks' 68+ registrations span a range of marks and jurisdictions that suggests a systematic commercial operation, not a single company protecting its legacy brand.

A second Serbian entity, Internet Group d.o.o., holds TESLA registrations via the Madrid Protocol (an international filing system that lets applicants cover multiple countries through a single application) in Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia, all in Class 9 covering computers and phones.

The class selection is deliberate. Both entities stay out of Class 12 (vehicles), Tesla Inc.'s core territory. Because trademark rights are class-specific, registering TESLA for kitchen appliances doesn't directly conflict with TESLA for automobiles. It's a strategy of adjacency: close enough to the brand's halo to have commercial value, far enough from the core classes to avoid immediate legal challenge.

This is the distinction between opportunistic and systematic squatting. Opportunistic squatters file a single application and hope. Systematic operators build portfolios, choose classes with care, and target jurisdictions where the brand owner hasn't filed.

What Squatters Actually File For: The Class Strategy

The Nice classification system divides all goods and services into 45 classes. A trademark registration in Class 9 (software, electronics) doesn't give you rights in Class 25 (clothing) or Class 30 (food). Squatters exploit this specificity.

The class strategies in the data tell a clear story.

TESLA squatters (CT Trademarks): Classes 7, 9, 11. Washing machines, televisions, kitchen appliances. Household electronics adjacent to the brand's tech reputation, but nowhere near Class 12 (vehicles), where Tesla Inc. holds strong registrations.

DEEPSEEK squatters: Class 25 (clothing), Class 42 (software and technology services), Class 36 (financial services), Class 9 (electronics). The clothing filings are the most commercially viable for a squatter. Branded merchandise for trending AI companies sells. Technology services (Class 42) is bolder, filing directly in DeepSeek's operational class.

CHATGPT squatters: Spread across a wider range, including Class 41 (education and training), Class 30 (food products), and various technology classes. The breadth suggests less strategic targeting and more speculative coverage.

The pattern is consistent: squatters target adjacent or unrelated classes because that's where the gaps are. Brand owners typically file in their core operating classes first and may never get to Classes 25, 30, or 41. Squatters fill those gaps.

The Geography of Trademark Squatting

Squatter filings in the dataset cluster around a handful of origin countries: China, Serbia, the US, France, and Australia. Each hub has a different character.

China leads in volume. Multiple Chinese entities filed CHATGPT applications, and STATE BULL COMPANY LIMITED (China) has multiple filings still pending opposition at EUIPO. China's first-to-file system and historically high filing volumes make it the largest single source of squatter applications by count.

Serbia is the surprise. CT Trademarks and Internet Group represent a concentrated, professional operation. The use of the Madrid Protocol to extend coverage across Balkan states (Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia) shows jurisdictional sophistication uncommon in opportunistic squatting.

Australia experienced a localized rush during the DEEPSEEK wave. Three or more filers submitted applications within 48 hours of DeepSeek going viral, making it the fastest-responding office outside Europe and the US.

France contributed early movers like Eloi Castarede, whose CHATGPT filing at EUIPO came just five weeks after launch.

The geographic logic is straightforward: squatters file where the brand owner hasn't. Trademark monitoring across jurisdictions reveals these gaps. If a company has registered its mark at the USPTO and EUIPO but not at CIPO or IP Australia, those are the offices where squatter filings concentrate.

The Madrid Protocol, designed to simplify legitimate international trademark protection, also serves as a squatter tool. A single Madrid filing from Serbia can extend TESLA coverage across multiple Balkan countries simultaneously. The system's efficiency works for anyone who uses it.

The Outcomes: What Happens When Trademark Squatting Succeeds

Most squatted filings fail. They get abandoned by the filer, refused by the examiner, or opposed by the brand owner. But the exceptions matter more than the rule.

Registered successfully:

• Marchi Service Limited (Hong Kong) registered DEEPSEEK at the USPTO for Class 25 (clothing). This is a live, active US trademark registration for one of the most talked-about AI brands in the world, held by a third party.
• CT Trademarks d.o.o. holds active TESLA registrations in Canada for household appliances. Some have been registered since 2021. Active for years.
• Yifei Zhang (China) successfully registered CHATGPT.

Pending opposition:

• STATE BULL COMPANY LIMITED (China) has multiple CHATGPT applications at EUIPO that are pending opposition proceedings. The outcome is uncertain, but the fact that these applications survived examination and reached the opposition stage (a 30-day window after approval when anyone can challenge the application) means they were not facially invalid.

Abandoned or refused:

• The majority of the 30+ non-OpenAI CHATGPT filings. Most were abandoned by the applicant or refused during examination. This is the expected outcome. But "most fail" is cold comfort when the ones that succeed create real problems.

The cost of inaction compounds. Opposition during the opposition window is the cheapest point of intervention for brand owners. Missing that window means pursuing cancellation proceedings after registration, a more expensive and uncertain process. CT Trademarks' TESLA registrations in Canada have been active since 2021. The longer a squatter's registration stands unchallenged, the stronger their claim becomes and the harder removal gets.

Brand Name Trademark Protection: What the Data Tells Brand Owners

The data points toward four practical takeaways for companies building recognizable brands.

File defensively before launch, not after. The trademark registration process takes months. If your brand generates viral attention before your applications are filed, squatters will beat you in first-to-file jurisdictions. File in key markets before your product goes public.

Cover adjacent classes, not just your core. Tesla Inc. filed for vehicles. Squatters filed for washing machines and televisions. DEEPSEEK squatters filed for clothing. If your brand has consumer recognition beyond your product category, that recognition has commercial value in classes you haven't covered.

Monitor globally, not just locally. The DEEPSEEK rush hit five offices across four continents in six days. Watching only the USPTO means missing activity at EUIPO, CIPO, IP Australia, and dozens of other offices. Signa's analysis of 14M+ USPTO filings shows how quickly filing patterns shift.

Oppose early. The opposition window (typically 30 days after a mark is approved for registration) is the cheapest intervention point. After registration, cancellation is more complex and expensive. Automated trademark monitoring catches trademark squatting attempts during examination, before the opposition window opens and closes.

Consult a trademark attorney for legal guidance specific to your situation. This analysis covers publicly available trademark filing data and does not constitute legal advice.

Methodology

This analysis uses data from Signa's production trademark database, covering 14M+ records across 21 offices. Searches were exact-match queries for brand names (CHATGPT, DEEPSEEK, TESLA, STARLINK, and others), with results filtered to exclude filings by the legitimate brand owners using owner entity analysis.

Limitations: Signa's database covers 21 offices, not all global trademark registers. Entity matching is name-based, which may miss corporate affiliates or subsidiaries. Filing data reflects records available through July 2026.

The June 2026 issue of This Month in AI Trademarks covers additional recent AI-related filing activity.

Monitor your brand across 200+ trademark offices with Signa's API. Detect squatting attempts before they become registrations at signa.so.