Vivo has been granted the great honor of the “iPOO” trademark in China. Something is probably lost (and gained) in the translation, and we aren’t exactly sure what it will be used for, but it’s Vivo’s now — within trademark class limitations.
And, no, the fun does not end here 🥲
vivo has filed the trademark for vivo iPOO.#vivo #iQOO #iPOO pic.twitter.com/ZARzek6rOG— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) August 26, 2021
Though we managed to dig up the application number, China hardly makes a detailed examination of trademarks as easy as some other countries. As is sadly the case with many of these government databases, we can’t seem to generate a link that actually survives, but what little we do know is below:
Machine translation of this content.
The iPOO trademark was first spotted by Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) with details that indicate the trademark covers class 9 goods and services, covering things like computer & software products, including mobile phones and related goods, apps, and services. However, the listing we dug up claims a different category of goods (class 28) that apply more to games.
There aren’t many details in Sharma’s citation, but the discrepancy could come down to an expansion or change in class that hasn’t been posted to the database we used yet. The disagreement in dates between what we found and what he cited could corroborate that. According to our own research, there is sometimes some overlap between the two classes as well when it comes to things like video games.
Tying into that is the fact that Vivo used to have a smartphone sub-brand with a single letter of alphabetical order difference. iQOO is now an independent brand, but the smartphones it released at one time highlighted gaming-focused features. More recently, you might remember it for the iQOO 7, which promised a Snapdragon 888 for a surprising price, plus a weird BWM collaboration.
Vivo first filed for the trademark back in 2020, but it was only recently granted, with a certificate for the trademark issued on May 27th and an exclusive rights period that began on April 21st.
