OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#41

Post by Legend2440 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:00 PM UTC

NBJack wrote: post #25

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".

It's not going to be something like that. Anyone legitimate is going to want to use a different name because of the confusion.

The only people naming something "OpenAI" are going to be trying to trick you into downloading their scammy chatGPT clone.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#42

Post by krembo » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:00 PM UTC

Weird decision, if so I wonder what would they say about other trademarks like Apple..

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#43

Post by lokar » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:01 PM UTC

slibhb wrote: post #18

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.

Give me a break. Apple doesn't sell apples.

Do they have a trademark on the word apple with no other context? I thought it was Apple computer, which is distinct.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#44

Post by slibhb » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:01 PM UTC

n6242 wrote: post #35

slibhb wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give me a break. Apple doesn't sell apples.

Exactly. Apple can register Apple because they don't sell apples so it's not misleading. OpenAI can't register OpenAI because they make ai but it's not open. They could call themselves Peaches, OpenWombat or ClosedAI and there wouldn't be any issues because those wouldn't be misleading.

No, the opinion doesn't have to do with whether OpenAI is open.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#45

Post by Legend2440 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:01 PM UTC

n6242 wrote: post #35

slibhb wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give me a break. Apple doesn't sell apples.

Exactly. Apple can register Apple because they don't sell apples so it's not misleading. OpenAI can't register OpenAI because they make ai but it's not open. They could call themselves Peaches, OpenWombat or ClosedAI and there wouldn't be any issues because those wouldn't be misleading.

>OpenAI can't register OpenAI because they make ai but it's not open.

Not the issue. Per the ruling even if their AI was open they still couldn't have the trademark.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#46

Post by DaiPlusPlus » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:02 PM UTC

Ekaros wrote: post #37

yorwba wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

I think there is most likely set of adjectives that would fall under same reasoning. GreenAI or FreeAI likely would be also be refused. On other hand RedAI or BlueAI might very well pass. It is not entirely unreasonable decision if you consider if the terms would be used in regular conversations on AI.

> RedAI

I suppose that could be a generic term for any AI used as an mock adversarial or sparring-partner role, like how "red team" is today.

> BlueAI

Would refer to an LLM/agent rained to simulate clinical depression...

...at which point I would ask why we're creating things that will know only pain and suffering? Are we the baddies now?

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#47

Post by lukan » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:03 PM UTC

zkmon wrote: post #26

Retric wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But apple still goes after real apple producers, who are older than apple.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/apple-swiss-trademark/

Something is wrong, when this is happening.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#48

Post by a012 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:04 PM UTC

Ekaros wrote: post #37

yorwba wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

I think there is most likely set of adjectives that would fall under same reasoning. GreenAI or FreeAI likely would be also be refused. On other hand RedAI or BlueAI might very well pass. It is not entirely unreasonable decision if you consider if the terms would be used in regular conversations on AI.

UnicornAI. You’re welcome

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#49

Post by mrtnmcc » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

We had a similar result when a big U.S. defense company (Kratos) tried to take our open source project's domain name: open.space

The panel ruled in our favor, that their OPENSPACE trademark is probably invalid because it is descriptive.

https://domainnamewire.com/2026/04/08/u-s-defense-contractor...

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#50

Post by delduca » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #46

Ekaros wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is most likely set of adjectives that would fall under same reasoning. GreenAI or FreeAI likely would be also be refused. On other hand RedAI or BlueAI might very well pass. It is not entirely unreasonable decision if you consider if the terms would be used in regular conversations on AI.

> RedAI I suppose that could be a generic term for any AI used as an mock adversarial or sparring-partner role, like how "red team" is today. > BlueAI Would refer to an LLM/agent rained to simulate clinical depression... ...at which point I would ask why we're creating things that will know only pain and suffering? Are we the baddies now?

BeAfraidUhhhhhAI