A controversy has stirred up the name of the Chinese company. Pico when trying to register his name in Chile.
The National Institute of Industrial Property (Inapi) of the South American country has denied the registration of its name in the territory and is that ‘.Pico‘ is slang for penis.
All for a Pico
The Financial Journal had access to the official document delivered by Inapi and was able to know the exact words to deny the registration.
“The sign requested Peakcorresponds to a sign that goes against good customs and morals, since it corresponds to a vulgar derivation of the name of the male genitalia. In turn, the requested expression may be considered as offensive and as a social conduct reproachable by consumers, and therefore cannot become a trademark”, it reads.
Pico is a key company. It was bought in 2021 by the giant ByteDance, the creators of TikTok, because they are known in the field of virtual reality.
With their own glasses PeakThe importance for the Chinese company is to compete on equal terms with Meta, which has Oculus for this territory.
Still seeking approval
Peak considers that Chile is a key country to start their operations in South America, so they are now filing with the Industrial Property Court.
“Actual usage shows us that the expression is not used in its vulgar sense and, in addition, the fact that my client is a foreign company allows us to conclude that they were not even aware of this meaning,” says Eduardo Lobos, of the firm Sargent and Krahn, which is legally defending the company.
On the other hand, he also argues that “Pico” has 18 other meanings accepted by the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española that are not considered vulgar.
Peak is the chosen name of the company because it is a very small unit of measurement, a useful size considering what the technological paths are aiming at.
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