Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been accused of IP theft, faced privacy inquiries in Europe, and has been the target of an enormous cyberattack. Now, it appears the company has a new headache on its hands: a U.S. trademark conflict.

On Tuesday, DeepSeek filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking to trademark its AI chatbot apps, products, and tools. But it was a hair too late. Thirty-six hours earlier, another firm had filed for the trademark “DeepSeek”: a Delaware-based company going by the name “Delson Group Inc.”

Delson Group asserts that it has been selling DeepSeek-branded AI products since early 2020. In its application, the company lists its address as a home in Cupertino, and its CEO and founder as a person named Willie Lu.

Lu, who coincidentally graduated from the same university as DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, Zhejiang University, claims on his LinkedIn profile to be a “semi-retired” consulting professor at Stanford and an FCC advisor. Lu seems to have spent most of his career in the wireless industry. Other web pages TechCrunch uncovered through the email address listed in the trademark filing mention Lu’s lectures and training courses on wireless standards.

Lu also hosts a “DeepSeek” educational course in Las Vegas on “AI Super-Intelligence,” starting at $800 a ticket — which features prominently on the website linked in Delson Group’s trademark filing. The website claims that Lu has “about 30 years’ expertise in ICT [information and communications technology] and AI fields.”

When reached for comment at the trademark filing email, Lu told TechCrunch that he would be willing to “meet and talk” in Palo Alto or Saratoga. (This reporter is based in NYC.) Lu didn’t respond to a follow-up request