Such ‘doge’: Chinese tech giants Tencent and ByteDance race to secure trademark for their own versions of popular emoji

Trademark tussle is the latest contest between two internet giants that increasingly clash in the fight for the attention of Chinese mobile phone users

The images the companies are trying to trademark are slightly different, but the applications could be challenged after the examination stage is finished

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The Japanese Shiba Inu dog that inspired the doge meme. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:00pm, 20 Apr 2021Updated: 7:00pm, 20 Apr 2021

TikTok owner ByteDance has opened a new front in its rivalry with social media giant Tencent Holdings: trying to secure trademark rights to its own version of the famous “doge” emoji that has become a symbol of sarcasm when used by netizens.

Beijing ByteDance Network Technology Co Ltd, a ByteDance subsidiary, last week submitted a trademark application for a picture of a dog’s head that looks similar to the doge emoji that originated in Japan in 2013, according to updated information on TianYanCha, a platform which tracks corporate registry information in China.

The company has also applied for a trademark under the name of “dog head big battle” in Chinese, in several use categories including advertising sales and public services, the updates showed.

The emoji is available on ByteDance’s Douyin app, the Chinese version of TikTok, where users add it to comments they post under videos, or in messages when they chat online with people.

The move followed what rival Tencent did two months ago. Its subsidiary Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co Ltd started the trademark registration process of a similar Doge picture, an emoji used on its popular social app WeChat. Use categories it looks to secure include advertising sales, lights and air conditioning, and metal materials.

Doge was inspired by a picture of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog looking warily at the camera with its paws crossed. It has since become a symbol of sarcasm among Chinese netizens, who use the emoji at the end of a post to imply the opposite of what they are saying. Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency featuring doge as its logo, was launched soon after the original meme became popular.