Honor files to trademark Magic Fold name

Back in June, we told you that Honor was going to take on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 with a foldable phone called the Honor Magic Fold. The latter is expected to be an inward folding device that opens to reveal a display that is nearly 8-inches in size. Honor had previously applied to use the Magic Fold name with Chinese trademark authorities, and today a Weibo tipster revealed that the former Huawei sub-brand had filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Organization (EUIPO) to protect the Magic Fold name.

The Weibo post notes that besides seeking a trademark on the Magic Fold name, Honor also seeks to trademark the Magic Wing name. That device could be a second foldable with a design similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 3. The Magic Fold would open and close like a book turning a smartphone-sized screen into a nearly 8-inch tablet-sized display. The Magic Wing might be a clamshell device that fits easily into a pocket until it is flipped open to become a 6.7-inch smartphone with a tall and thin 22:9 aspect ratio.

But for the moment, this is all conjecture and it is possible that the Magic Wing could simply refer to a laptop rather than a clamshell phone. Either way, the company continues to branch out on its own. Originally, as we mentioned above, a Huawei sub-brand, Honor was sold nearly a year ago for approximately $15 billion to a consortium. Huawei was looking to free up Honor from having to follow the restrictions placed on it by the U.S. due to its ties with Huawei.

By selling Honor, Huawei received some much-needed cash and Honor no longer had sanctions placed on it by the U.S. That is why the Honor 50 series comes with Google Mobile Services which it had been banned from using while a Huawei unit. Honor will not only be competing with Samsung in the foldable marketplace but also its old corporate parent as Huawei has already released two foldable models in the Mate X and the Mate X2.

However, getting divorced from Huawei might not have totally freed Honor. In August, 14 House Republicans have asked the U.S. Commerce Department to apply the same bans to Honor that it has placed on Huawei. That would be mean putting Honor on the Entity List preventing the firm from accessing its U.S. supply chain without obtaining a license. Honor would not be able to use Google Mobile Services and the Google licensed version of Android.

This could also result in banning Honor from receiving any chips that were made by foundries using equipment that depends on American technology. The U.S. Commerce Department told the 14 Republicans asking for Honor to be sanctioned that "the agency appreciates "the perspective of these members of Congress." The Commerce Department also said that it "is continually reviewing available information to identify potential additions to the Entity List."

Last year Huawei finished third among the world's top phone manufacturers after delivering 189 million phones (Samsung and Apple were one and two with shipments of 266.7 million and 206.1 million units respectively. Now that the U.S. restrictions against Huawei are fully biting, and Honor has moved out on its own, Huawei has dropped out of the top five with Xiaomi taking its place.

In China, however, Honor owned 15% of the smartphone market during the third quarter. That was nearly double the 8% slice of the Chinese smartphone pie that Huawei owned during the same quarter. Returning to the global market, some analysts earlier this year were calling for Huawei to finish sixth with Honor right below it at number seven.