OpenAI has removed all mention of its partnership with iPhone designer Jony Ive thanks to an IYO lawsuit.
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman (pictured above), announced last month that he was buying Ive’s product and engineering company, io, in a deal valued at nearly US$6.5 million.
This quickly faced backlash from an AI startup with a similar name, IYO, which filed a trademark complaint, stating that they had also pitched to Altman’s personal investment firm and Ive’s design firm in 2022.
“We're not gonna let Sam & Jony steal our name,” IYO CEO and founderJason Rugolo said on X.
“There are 675 other two-letter names they can choose that aren't ours.”
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled that IYO had a strong enough case to proceed with a hearing in December and advised Altman, Ive and OpenAI to refrain from “using the IYO mark, and any mark confusingly similar thereto, including the IO mark in connection with the marketing or sale of related products.”
Due to this, all mentions of io have been scrubbed from the OpenAI website, including the announcement blog post.
“This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from IYO about our use of the name 'io.” We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options,” the link where the announcement blog post once was says.
Altman also took to X to complain about the lawsuit, calling it “silly, disappointing and wrong”.
“It is cool to try super hard to raise money or get acquired and to do whatever you can to make your company succeed,” he said in an X thread.
“It is not cool to turn to a lawsuit when you don't get what you want. Sets a terrible precedent for trying to help the ecosystem.”
