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OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

dpa-international.com

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Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#21

Post by literalAardvark »

Legend2440 wrote: post #16
VorpalWay wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they could have used a less generic and misleading name (it is not very open, as noted in the article). OpenAI only really have themselves to blame here.

Plenty of companies use generic words for their name, and they still get trademarks. American Airlines for example is indeed just an American airline. The Container Store, Vision Center, General Motors, International business machines (IBM), the list goes on. Even Microsoft is just a contraction of their original product, microcomputer software.

In the US

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#22

Post by yorwba »

jameson wrote: post #6

> The EUIPO found that the word "open" would be understood by the relevant public as meaning freely accessible, while the combination with "AI" (artificial intelligence) would be interpreted as referring to products based on openly accessible artificial intelligence. > for certain software and information technology goods and services, the term is purely descriptive and therefore lacks the distinctiveness required fo…

More pertinently "the term is purely descriptive and therefore lacks the distinctiveness required for trademark protection." I.e. the problem isn't that OpenAI's products don't match their description, but that trademarking it would unduly prevent others from describing their openly accessible artificial intelligence as "open AI."

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#23

Post by Legend2440 »

7bit wrote: post #13
jmole wrote: post #4

This seems like a bad decision to me that will ultimately harm consumers, if anyone can launch a product and say it’s made by “OpenAI”.

"It will harm consumers" Ah yes, chosing a name that transports openness and transparency when the opposite is the case, and complaining about not being able to register that name as a trademark, which will cause financial harm the said company -- but somehow there's still people to spin it the other way around so it harms consumers now, therefore it was a bad decision. That's the definition of anti-consumer behavior

You just don't like OpenAI and are for anything that hurts them, without thinking through the consequences.

What will harm consumers is the scammy "OpenAI" chat app that I can now legally upload to app stores in the EU, in hopes of tricking people into thinking it's a genuine app.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#24

Post by [deleted] »

yorwba wrote: post #22
jameson wrote: post #6

> The EUIPO found that the word "open" would be understood by the relevant public as meaning freely accessible, while the combination with "AI" (artificial intelligence) would be interpreted as referring to products based on openly accessible artificial intelligence. > for certain software and information technology goods and services, the term is purely descriptive and therefore lacks the distinctiveness required fo…

More pertinently "the term is purely descriptive and therefore lacks the distinctiveness required for trademark protection." I.e. the problem isn't that OpenAI's products don't match their description, but that trademarking it would unduly prevent others from describing their openly accessible artificial intelligence as "open AI."

[deleted]

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#25

Post by NBJack »

jmole wrote: post #4

This seems like a bad decision to me that will ultimately harm consumers, if anyone can launch a product and say it’s made by “OpenAI”.

You know, if it was someone offering a truly open (weights + training data) and available model running on consumer hardware in a privacy sandbox, I would welcome that "harm".

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#26

Post by zkmon »

Retric wrote: post #20
joshuat wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Preventing companies named [adjective]+[product/service provided] doesn't seem sustainable.

Companies can be named after random nonsense, ‘pink catfish’ could easily be the world’s #1 supplier of firearms and nobody would find it strange. Caterpillar, Apple, Kellogg, etc really don’t have anything to do with the underlying product but neither do people’s names.

They didn't have "open" or "free" as prefix.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#27

Post by joshuat »

thewebguyd wrote: post #19
joshuat wrote: post #10

This feels like a slight misstep that could result in consumer harm. The name is incredibly vague, without doubt, but to claim "OpenAI" doesn't evoke a very specific company at this point in the minds of consumers seems myopic.

Whether it evokes a specific company now isn't relevant to the ruling. The trademark was refused, and this was a challenge to that initial refusal, and the refusal was upheld. I somewhat agree with the EU here. It's far too generic, "Open" and "AI." To grant the trademark would mean any AI product that actually IS open, or open source, etc. cannot say they are "Open AI" which IMO would be a problem. Where I might dis…

I completely agree with your last point. They shouldn't have ownership of "Open" in relation to "AI" broadly speaking, but their company name "OpenAI" should be protected.

Entirely possible, seeming more likely, that I didn't have enough background information on the short article.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#28

Post by slibhb »

Chu4eeno wrote: post #8
zkmon wrote: post #2

Someone finally asks some sensible questions, about hijacking of the term "open".

I thought you were joking, but that seemingly was the argument.

The argument doesn't hinge on whether OpenAI is actually open. Rather it seems to have to do with the name being insufficiently distinguishable from a generic term ("open AI"). I think it's a bizarre ruling given that everyone already knows what OpenAI is.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#29

Post by Legend2440 »

literalAardvark wrote: post #21
Legend2440 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of companies use generic words for their name, and they still get trademarks. American Airlines for example is indeed just an American airline. The Container Store, Vision Center, General Motors, International business machines (IBM), the list goes on. Even Microsoft is just a contraction of their original product, microcomputer software.

In the US

Many of these companies have EU trademarks as well.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#30

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

zkmon wrote: post #2

Someone finally asks some sensible questions, about hijacking of the term "open".

I seem to remember the company behind either Monster Cables, or Monster energy drinks, going after anyone that used the word “monster,” even in casual context.
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