(Yicai Global) May 12 -- Huawei Technologies is facing a significant stumbling block in the rolling out of its own Harmony operating system as the Chinese telecoms giant's appeal against a previous ruling rejecting its trademark registration application was kicked out by a Beijing court today on the grounds that similar trademarks already exist.

Huawei filed a lawsuit against the China National Intellectual Property Administration last year after it failed to approve the smartphone maker's first attempt to register HarmonyOS.

It is proper and legal for the CNIPA to reject Huawei’s application, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court said today. Huawei’s claim lacks a factual and legal basis, so the court cannot support it, it added.

Beijing Hai’an Hongmeng Standard Substance Technology and Zhuozhou Hongmeng Industry both have registered trademarks that are similar to Huawei’s Harmony in the Chinese language which might confuse the public, according to the CNIPA’s decision last May.

Huawei counterclaimed that the Harmony system is well known among the public, is closely tied to the Huawei brand and therefore there should be no cause for confusion or misunderstanding. However, the court did not agree.

The news will be a big blow to Shenzhen-based Huawei which has invested tens of millions of US dollars in recent years to develop its own OS and devices in order to operate independently of US technology after being placed on a US trade blacklist in May 2019 over national security concerns.

The HarmonyOS beta version that is currently being used for testing purposes has more than 300 application partners and there have been more than five million views of the HarmonyOS documentation, Duan Mengran, vice president of Huawei’s consumer business artificial intelligence and smart full-scenario business department, said earlier.

Editor: Kim Taylor