Federal Judge Rules in Favor of OpenAI in Trademark Dispute Over 'Open AI' Name
Federal Judge Rules in Favor of OpenAI in Trademark Dispute Over 'Open AI' Name
In a significant legal win for OpenAI, a federal judge in California ruled that Guy Ravine’s company, Open Artificial Intelligence, infringed on OpenAI’s trademark by using the name “Open AI” in commercial contexts and causing user confusion.
The case, OpenAI Inc. v. Open Artificial Intelligence Inc., was heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, case number 4:23-cv-03918. OpenAI was represented by Margret Caruso, Robert Feldman, Bobby Schwartz, and Sam Stake of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Ravine’s legal team included Jason Wilson, Ashley Kirk, and David Harris of Willenken LLP.
OpenAI, co-founded in late 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others and known for tools like ChatGPT, GPT-4, and DALL·E, argued that Ravine’s use of the name was a calculated effort to mislead consumers and capitalize on OpenAI’s growing reputation.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided with OpenAI, finding trademark infringement even though Ravine registered the now-defunct “open.ai” domain before OpenAI’s founding. The judge cited Ravine’s trademark application timing and a redesigned website that closely resembled OpenAI’s site as signs of intentional deception.
The dispute originated in 2023 when OpenAI discovered Ravine had applied to register the “Open AI” trademark just one day after the company’s public debut. Emails disclosed in the case showed that OpenAI’s founders offered to buy the domain from Ravine in 2015 and again in 2022.
A spokesperson for OpenAI welcomed the court’s decision, stating it affirms the organization’s right to “protect the OpenAI name and avoid confusion for our users.” In contrast, a representative for Open Artificial Intelligence expressed disagreement with the ruling and confirmed plans to appeal.
Judge Rogers had earlier granted OpenAI’s request for a preliminary injunction in 2023, barring Ravine from using the “Open AI” name. In her final ruling, she found that Ravine misled the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office about using the name in commerce and noted that his website was not operational at the time.
