Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei, apologised in an online internal forum last Wednesday, February 3rd, for registering a trademark for her daughter, Yao Siwei.
Yao Siwei made her debut as a celebrity and an entertainer last January 14th, releasing her first single which led to some mixed reactions. On January 25th, Huawei filed a trademark for the young entertainer and acted as an agent.
According to a note released internally to Huawei employees, there was a statement that states “some companies or individuals would maliciously step in the registration of trademarks related to Annabel Yao, so we have no choice but to do it first,”
“According to the provisions of China’s trademark law, citizens of Chinese mainland must use the name of the company or hold an individual industrial and commercial business license to apply for trademark registration. Yao has just graduated and has yet to register a company. Therefore, Ren has entrusted the intellectual property department to register trademark as the agent, and will later transfer them to Yao’s studio, and she will pay the full cost of the application,” according to the statement.
This is a violation because Ren Zhengfei used his company for personal purposes, which is illegal in China and Znengfei also apologised for on behalf of Huawei Employees. According to Data Service company, Tianyancha, there were over 90 trademarks filed by Huawei for Yao Suwei, including “Yao Anna” “Annalbel Yao” “YaoAnna” and “YaoSiwei”
SOURCES: GlobalTimes CN, CGTN News
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