Apu Gomes via Getty Images
- Starship Technologies filed trademarks for "Starship" and "Robovan" before SpaceX and Tesla did.
- The robotics startup made trademark filings in 2015 and 2017 respectively, which were approved in 2019.
- Separately, Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, is facing trademark lawsuits for its new name.
Robotic startup Starship Technologies has a few things in common with Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, and EV giant Tesla.
Besides sharing the same name as SpaceX's spacecraft, the company also has a trademark for "Robovan" — the name Tesla has chosen for its self-driving cargo van. The company specializes in autonomous delivery robots.
When asked about Tesla's Robovan, a spokesperson for Starship said in an email to Business Insider on October 11 that the Robovan "was a great idea when we came up with it 7 years ago."
To be sure, Starship's Robovan isn't a self-driving vehicle like Tesla's. Musk first showcased the Tesla Robovan on October 10 in Burbank, California, during Tesla's "We, Robot" event.
In a 2016 YouTube video, Starship described its Robovan as a vehicle designed to store and deploy its autonomous delivery robots.
"Starship is a great name too; we also had that first and trademarked it," the spokesperson wrote in the same email.
According to United States Patent and Trademark Office records, Starship filed trademarks for "Starship" and "Robovan" in July 2015 and July 2017, respectively.
Both applications were successfully registered in May 2019 and April 2019, respectively.
SpaceX filed a trademark for "Starship" in March 2023, though it has not been approved as of press time.
SpaceX's application was filed under three use cases — rockets and their structural parts, rocket launching platforms, and scale or toy models of rockets, satellites, and launch pads.
Starship's application was made concerning the transport, delivery, and shipping of goods.
In fact, SpaceX and Starship Technologies aren't the only companies that have filed trademarks using the word "Starship."
The New Belgium Brewing Company, a Colorado-headquartered brewery, made a filing for a flavor of beer in March 2016. Then, in August 2023, NYC Harbor Tours made a filing for a cruise tour of the same name.
Starship's "Robovan" application was filed under five use cases — gears and enclosed drives for industrial machinery, land vehicles, online transportation logistics services, transport and delivery of goods, as well as for non-downloadable software that enables shippers to manage pick-ups and deliveries.
Tesla has yet to file a trademark for "Robovan" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Musk's company, X, has separately run into some trademark issues.
In October 2023, a legal marketing agency called X Social Media sued Musk's social media platform X in federal court in Florida. Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it X in July 2023.
"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," the company said in its lawsuit.
A Florida federal judge declined to dismiss the lawsuit in July.
Also in July, a PR firm named Multiply filed a similar lawsuit in California federal court.
In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for Multiply accused Musk of "shamelessly" stealing "the established identity of our social media and PR agency."
Representatives for Tesla and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.