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SpaceX and Tesla did not file trademarks for "Robovan" and "Starship" until after Starship Technologies did. Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, is also being sued for trademarks related to its new name. Neither SpaceX nor Tesla responded to requests for comment outside of regular business hours.SpaceX and Tesla did not file trademarks for “Robovan” and “Starship” until after Starship Technologies did, in 2015 and 2017, respectively, the robotics startup filed for trademarks, which were accepted in 2019 and Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, is also being sued for trademarks related to its new name.
Additionally, the corporation holds a trademark for “Robovan”—the name Tesla has picked for its self-driving cargo van—in addition to having the same name as SpaceX’s spacecraft. Autonomous delivery robots are the company’s area of expertise. In an October 11 email to Business Insider, a Starship representative responded to a question regarding Tesla’s Robovan by saying that it “was a great idea when we came up with it 7 years ago.”
The Robovan from Starship isn’t a self-driving car like Tesla’s, to be sure. At Tesla’s “We, Robot” event in Burbank, California, on October 10, Musk made his debut appearance with the Tesla Robovan. Starship defined their Robovan as a vehicle intended to store and deploy its autonomous delivery robots in a 2016 YouTube video.
“Starship is a great name too; we also had that first and trademarked it,” the spokesman stated in the same email.
The trademarks for “Robovan” and “Starship” were submitted by Starship in July 2017 and July 2015, respectively, according to records from the USPTO.
SpaceX submitted a trademark application for “Starship” in March 2023, but as of this writing, it has not been accepted. Both applications were successfully registered in May 2019 and April 2019, accordingly.
Rockets and their structural components, rocket launching platforms, and scale or toy replicas of rockets, satellites, and launch pads were the three use cases under which SpaceX’s application was filed. The application for Starship was made in relation to shipping, delivery, and transportation of commodities. Not just SpaceX and Starship Technologies, however, have registered trademarks utilising the term “Starship.”
In March 2016, the Colorado-based brewery New Belgium Brewing Company filed for a beer flavour. Then, NYC Harbour Tours filed for a cruise trip with the same name in August 2023. Gears and enclosed drives for industrial machinery, land vehicles, online transportation logistics services, transportation and delivery of goods, and non-downloadable software that helps shippers handle pick-ups and deliveries are the five use cases under which Starship’s “Robovan” application was filed.
The US Patent and Trademark Office has not yet received a trademark application for “Robovan” from Tesla. Separately, Musk’s business, X, has encountered some trademark problems. Musk’s social media platform X was sued in federal court in Florida in October 2023 by X Social Media, a legal marketing firm. In July 2023, Musk changed the name of Twitter to X after purchasing it in October 2022.
“The media coverage and attention generated by the launch has quickly caused reverse confusion and led consumers to believe that X Social Media’s advertising services are being offered by or are associated with X Corp,” according to the complaint filed by the business.
In July, a federal court in Florida refused to dismiss the case.
A identical case was brought in a California federal court in July by a public relations business called Multiply. A Multiply representative told Reuters that Musk had “shamelessly” stolen “the established identity of our social media and PR agency.”” BI emailed requests for comment outside of regular business hours, but neither SpaceX nor Tesla representatives responded.
