- Tesla failed to register the Cybercab trademark before its unveiling.
- Another company beat Tesla to apply for the trademark.
- The USPTO has put Tesla’s application on hold until the other company decides to register or drop the claim in the Cybercab name.
Move fast and break things is a typical Silicon Valley mantra. Unfortunately for Tesla, so does talking big before taking timely action (ahem, Fully self-driving and robotaxis). That second piece created a mistake that may have cost Tesla dearly: the name Cybercab.
A delay in filing paperwork led to the US Patent and Trademark Office suspending Tesla’s application to register the Cybercab trademark ahead of the vehicle’s launch. the reason? Someone else hit them with a punch.
Photo by: Tesla
According to a government filing I monitored Electrica French beverage company called Unibev filed for the Cybercab trademark several weeks before Tesla, meaning it is first in line. Unibev even applied to use the name for vehicles, just as Tesla did.
It turns out that when Tesla Cybercab was unveiled on October 10, 2024 CEO Elon Musk dropped the name of the product, and Tesla has not yet filed an actual trademark application. Unibev decided to move in and applied for the same trademark nearly three weeks later on October 28. Tesla filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office the following month.
“Action on this application is suspended until the previously filed application(s) below are registered or abandoned,” the USPTO wrote in a letter to Tesla.
The USPTO requires that trademarks be distinct, not conflict with other trademarks, be used in commerce (or have the intent to be), and have the potential to be a “source identifier” — meaning consumers can easily identify that word to the trademark. Since Unibev applied for the trademark before Tesla registered, it takes precedence, and if granted, Tesla’s use of the Cybercab would not tick at least one of those boxes. Unibev certainly doesn’t own the trademark yet, as its application is still listed as pending.
What’s strange is that Unibev seems to have played this game with Tesla before. The company has three beverage brands called “Teslaquila,” a name the automaker once tried to use for limited-production alcoholic beverages. (Tesla eventually abandoned this trademark, but only because Mexican regulators did not place any trademark in takeover mode.)
But the Cybercab nameplate is definitely a bigger deal in the grand scheme of things for the automaker. This is the two-seat, steering wheel-free self-driving pod that is supposed to catapult Tesla into the future. Tesla aims to begin manufacturing it on a large scale this year.
This isn’t exactly a death sentence for the Cybercab name. These types of disputes occur over trademarks. Tesla could challenge this idea, or even negotiate a financial remedy with Unibev.
From the outside, it looks as if Tesla wasn’t ready to launch its product, but while the company has produced a lot of products… Surprising pivots And the promises around Cybercab and related platforms, it’s not really surprising. Regardless, it’s bad enough that Tesla’s iconic product name is being usurped by a company with no connection to it.
