TikTok May Return to India as ‘TickTock’, ByteDance Trademark Application Hints

TikTok may make a comeback in India soon as its parent company ByteDance has filed a trademark for the short-form video app with the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks. It was among the 59 Chinese apps that the government banned in June last year. Shortly after the ban, the TikTok app was pulled from app stores and became inaccessible on Indian networks. Platforms including Facebook’s Instagram, however, integrated a similar experience that was originally available on TikTok to fill its gap for Indian users.

As per the latest report, TikTok’s parent company ByteDace has filed a trademark for the short-form video app with the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks. The report states that the trademark application for TikTok has been filed with the title “TickTock” dated July 6.

The application was first reported by tipster Mukul Sharma on Twitter. The trademark application has been filed under the Class 42 of the Fourth Schedule to Trade Mark Rules, 2002 meant for “scientific and technological services and research and design relating thereto; industrial analysis and research services; design and development of computer hardware and software.”

Parent company ByteDance hasn’t revealed any detail on the relaunch of TikTok as of yet. Several reports and rumours circulating on the internet suggests that the company is in early talks with the government of India. ByteDance recently also assured to work to comply with the new IT rules.

According to media reports, ByteDance has been in talks with the government on bringing TikTok back to the country. The Chinese company also assured officials that it would work to comply with the new IT rules.

ByteDance in 2019 appointed its chief nodal and grievance officer in India. It is one of the key requirements of the IT rules for ‘significant’ social media intermediaries that have over 50 lakh users in the country.

However, despite having the nodal and grievance officer in place, ByteDance-owned TikTok faced the nationwide ban last year for threatening the country’s “sovereignty and integrity” amid border tensions with China.

Among the hundreds of banned Chinese apps, PUBG Mobile is the only one that has relaunched in the country with a new identity. Besides TikTok, another banned Chinese app is coming to India, Shein online shopping platform. Unfortunately, Shein will not relaunch as a separate app but just as a platform within the Amazon website during the Prime Day sale 2021, which begins on July 26 for everyone and on July 25 for Prime members.

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