Domestic firms should increase their awareness of trademark registration and protection, analysts told the Global Times Sunday, as Tencent Technology Co struggles with an ongoing trademark battle over its "Weixin" brand name in Chinese characters which have been registered in advance by other firms.

The Shenzhen-based Internet firm, China's largest by revenue, applied to register the Weixin characters as the Chinese name of its online chat platform Wechat on January 24, 2011. Its application came a week after Beijing Lianzhi Zhaoyang Culture Communication Co (BLZ) applied to register the same characters.

Wechat, launched on January 21, 2011, is expected to have over 300 million users by January 2013, said Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent, at the Guangdong Internet Conference held between December 14 and 15, 2012.

According to the Trademark Law of China, the first applicant gets the trademark and a later applicant can challenge the decision within three months.

The battle is still going on, with neither Tencent nor BLZ owning the trademark currently. Until it is resolved, Tencent cannot turn to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) to protect Wechat's Chinese trademark, You Yunting, an intellectual property lawyer, said on his Weibo Friday.

Tencent refused to comment when contacted by the Global Times Sunday, and BLZ could not be reached by the press time.

Data from the Trademark Office of SAIC indicated that the Weixin trademark has already been registered by domestic firms other than Tencent in at least five other categories, including online games, online advertisements and computer program designs.

Tencent has only filed the trademark for the words "Wechat" and "Weixin" under two of China's 45 trademark categories.

The company's loss of the trademark in important categories has diminished its control over the Wechat brand and become a potential threat to Wechat's future development, You's Weibo said.

"To protect brands, major foreign companies may register their trademarks in all categories. Major domestic companies should at least protect their trademarks in relevant or potentially relevant fields," Xu Yi, a lawyer at Deternal Intellectual Property Office, told the Global Times Sunday.

Domestic companies should also pay more attention to the protection of commercial secrets, said Xu, speculating that the pre-emptive registration of "Weixin" by third-party firms was caused by Tencent insiders leaking information.

Xu also noted that BLZ will likely yield the trademark to Tencent - once a price has been negotiated.

Apple Inc encountered a similar trademark dispute with Proview Technology (Shenzhen) Co, and was ordered to pay the Chinese company $60 million for a trademark on the word "iPad" in a Guangdong -based court decision on June 25, 2012.