OpenAI wins trademark lawsuit against doppelganger company

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of ChatGPT creator OpenAI in a dispute between it and a similarly named tech firm in a trademark fight over the company’s name.

In a 19-page order, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers granted summary judgment to OpenAI, saying that a lesser known tech firm originally built for open-source AI education infringed on the tech leaders’ trademark by offering chatbot and image generator tools, possibly looking to coast off the name recognition of the better known company.

The Barack Obama appointee said that Guy Ravine, founder of Open Artificial Intelligence, “copied” OpenAI’s trademark.

In her order, the judge ruled on a dozen different claims in dispute in the almost two-year-old lawsuit, including five claims for trademark infringement and fraud against Open Artificial Intelligence and seven counterclaims against OpenAI.

Rogers acknowledged early in her decision that the small differences in each company’s trademarks (“OpenAI” vs. “Open AI”) have likely caused a lot of customer confusion. However, the judge ultimately sided with OpenAI, noting that Open Artificial Intelligence only began offering chatbot and image generator products after OpenAI’s successful launch of ChatGPT and Dall-E 2.

The judge also found that Ravine acted “with knowledge and intent” to deceive the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by submitting trademark documents that misrepresented the date Ravine began operating his company for commerce.

Furthermore, the judge was not persuaded by the founder’s “deflective” arguments that he didn’t know any better as a non-lawyer, and his assertion that attorneys regularly submit false information to the trademark office.

“Two wrongs do not make a right,” Rogers said.

Rogers was already skeptical of the lesser known company’s position during a hearing on the matter in early July.

Rogers said that even if Ravine was first to use the “Open AI” trademark in commerce — a possibility she called “highly debatable” —  Ravine eventually launched a product much different and much more sophisticated than his previous open-source collaboration tools, which were originally intended for educational purposes. This, she found, infringed on OpenAI’s trademark.

As a result, the court ordered Open Artificial Intelligence to refrain from using “Open AI” in its advertising, marketing, websites, logos, design or otherwise taking any action likely to cause confusion with the tech giant’s existing brand. The judge also cancelled Ravine’s previously registered trademark, finding it was procured based on fraud.

The judge’s order canceled the case’s trial date and all related deadlines.

An attorney for Open Artificial Intelligence criticized the ruling.

“We fundamentally disagree with the court’s ruling, which we believe ignored much of the evidence,” Greg Gilchrist of Verso Law Group, who represented Open Artificial Intelligence, said in an email. “The court’s ruling in the face of these foundational facts has us baffled but this is not the final word. We are fully confident in our case and will be pursuing every available avenue, including appeal, to ensure the true facts are understood and our clients’ rights are vindicated."

A spokesperson for Open AI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In its lawsuit, OpenAI claims it is trying to stop the lesser known company from using its name and trademark, saying that its competitor has no proof that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stole the idea for his billion-dollar business.

OpenAI claims that after it announced its founding in 2015, Ravine snapped up a similar-sounding website and later changed his company’s branding and marketing to trade off its success, confusing consumers and harming its reputation.

“Defendants should not be allowed to profit from their misappropriation of OpenAI’s established name, leverage for themselves OpenAI’s goodwill, or fraudulently divert public interest in and demand for OpenAI’s products,” the ChatGPT creator said in its lawsuit.

Earlier this year, Rogers ordered a preliminary injunction on Ravine’s use of the trademark “Open AI” in commerce, saying that Open Artificial Intelligence’s branding was likely to confuse consumers.

In that order, she rejected Open Artificial Intelligence’s claim that its trademark rights trump and precede OpenAI’s and said that Ravine’s 2015 website appeared to be either inoperative or created just before applying for a trademark.

OpenAI primarily develops artificial intelligence models and applications, including the ChatGPT chatbot and an automatic speech recognition system.

Both companies are Delaware-based corporations that primarily operate out of their headquarters in San Francisco.

This case was filed in the Northern District of California.