OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#71

Post by Hamuko » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #64

As much as I hate OpenAI for hijacking the term "open", and I love the idea of OpenAI losing, I am not sure if I agree with it. Trademarks are first intended to protect consumers, so that if it says Coca Cola, then the Coca Cola company made it, for the better of for the worse, but at least you know. OpenAI is already a well known name in Europe, and when I see OpenAI on a product, I expect it to be a product of that…

>OpenAI is already a well known name in Europe

Are there brand awareness surveys that back that up?

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#72

Post by yorwba » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

lukan wrote: post #47

zkmon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You link is incorrectly paraphrasing this Wired article https://www.wired.com/story/apple-vs-apples-trademark-battle... by claiming that Apple sued Swiss farmers, even though Apple sued the Institute of Intellectual Property instead. Apple won the case a month after publication of that article https://bvger.weblaw.ch/pdf/B-4493-2022_2023-07-26_c897bf22-... and the Swiss Fruit Union continues to use their apple logo (which looks completely different from any of the apple images Apple has trademarked) https://www.swissfruit.ch

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#73

Post by Hamuko » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

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…

And to think that this could have all been avoided if they'd just renamed themselves something more appropriate after they decided to focus fully on developing closed models for profit.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#74

Post by scottydelta » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #59

The story about the ruling really doesn't explain why another company called OpenText that's been around since 1991 and has a valid trademark registration in EU but OpenAI would be invalid. OpenText also has its Europe headquarters in Germany: https://www.opentext.com/about/office-locations Any legal guesses as to why those 2 companies are treated differently with regards to the very generic words : "open", "text", "…

Basically the laws have changed since then, and OpenText is grandfathered in.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#75

Post by wsng » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #59

The story about the ruling really doesn't explain why another company called OpenText that's been around since 1991 and has a valid trademark registration in EU but OpenAI would be invalid. OpenText also has its Europe headquarters in Germany: https://www.opentext.com/about/office-locations Any legal guesses as to why those 2 companies are treated differently with regards to the very generic words : "open", "text", "…

Open AI has an independent descriptive meaning as composite term. You would practically trademark a whole class of products, not only a brand name.

In contrast, open text is not descriptive in the sense of being a category of things. Therefore there is no risk that competitors would run into trademark issues by just describing their products.

Also, trademark decisions are always contextual to their time. Today’s meaning of ‘open’ in the context of software and data was not even coined in 1991, at that time people used ‘free software’ as term. Today I am not sure if ‘open text’ could still be trademarked.

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#76

Post by Hamuko » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

joshuat wrote: post #12

zkmon wrote: post #2

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

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

This seems a lot more sustainable than allowing me to trademark a tire company called "WinterTire" and enabling me to sue any other tire company that tries to capitalise on my trademark.

(And if WinterTire Co was anything like OpenAI, it'd be focused on making summer tires)

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#77

Post by SkiFire13 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC

sebastiennight wrote: post #63

jasode wrote: post #59

The story about the ruling really doesn't explain why another company called OpenText that's been around since 1991 and has a valid trademark registration in EU but OpenAI would be invalid. OpenText also has its Europe headquarters in Germany: https://www.opentext.com/about/office-locations Any legal guesses as to why those 2 companies are treated differently with regards to the very generic words : "open", "text", "…

First of all, can you explain what an "open text" is? Second, as far as I can find through the French IP office (INPI), OpenText (single word) is trademarked as a figurative trademark (meaning they are basically protecting the image of the logo), not a verbal trademark.[0] Which is what you typically do when you know that your trademark is too likely to be rejected (as being too descriptive), but you want to give it…

All OpenText EUIPO trademarks I can find are also figurative https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview/results?page=1&pageSize...

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#78

Post by nottorp » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC

slibhb wrote: post #28

Chu4eeno wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> everyone already knows what OpenAI is

If it has Open in the name it's something to do with open source and "AI" right? :)

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#79

Post by nottorp » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #64

As much as I hate OpenAI for hijacking the term "open", and I love the idea of OpenAI losing, I am not sure if I agree with it. Trademarks are first intended to protect consumers, so that if it says Coca Cola, then the Coca Cola company made it, for the better of for the worse, but at least you know. OpenAI is already a well known name in Europe, and when I see OpenAI on a product, I expect it to be a product of that…

> Trademarks are first intended to protect consumers

Huh? I thought they're intended to protect "innovation".

Re: OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

#80

Post by wsng » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #64

As much as I hate OpenAI for hijacking the term "open", and I love the idea of OpenAI losing, I am not sure if I agree with it. Trademarks are first intended to protect consumers, so that if it says Coca Cola, then the Coca Cola company made it, for the better of for the worse, but at least you know. OpenAI is already a well known name in Europe, and when I see OpenAI on a product, I expect it to be a product of that…

As explained in the judgement, being well-known is irrelevant. This is not about consumer protection, but about brand protection.

You are right that the decision has the potential to confuse consumers. However, that is on Open AI, they should have consulted trademark lawyers earlier, and should have rebranded after shifting from open AI to commercial AI.