OpenAI CEO calls IYO’s trademark lawsuit ‘silly, disappointing and wrong’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has criticised a lawsuit filed by hardware startup IYO, which accused his company of trademark infringement.

In a post on X, Altman said IYO’s CEO, Jason Rugolo, had previously made repeated efforts to get OpenAI to either invest in or acquire his company. “Now he is suing OpenAI over the name. This is silly, disappointing and wrong,” Altman wrote.



Altman then went on to share screenshots of emails from Rugolo asking for investment and proposing a deal involving IYO’s intellectual property (IP).

He added, “It is cool to try super hard to raise money or get acquired and to do whatever you can to make your company succeed. 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.”

Dispute background

The legal conflict arose after OpenAI announced in May its plans to move into hardware by acquiring io, an AI startup led by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, in a deal worth $6.5 billion.

Soon after the announcement, IYO filed a complaint, claiming the name of Ive’s startup sounded too similar to its own and could cause confusion, potentially damaging the brand’s identity.

On 23 June, Rugolo emphasised in a post: “we're not gonna let sam & jony steal our name.”

US District Judge Trina Thompson, on Friday, allowed the case to move forward, stating that IYO has a strong enough claim to warrant a hearing scheduled for October. She also ordered Altman, Ive, and OpenAI to stop “using the IYO mark, and any mark confusingly similar thereto, including the IO mark in connection with the marketing or sale of related products.”

Following the court order, OpenAI removed mentions of the new project from its website, including the original announcement posted on 21 May. A message now appears on that page, stating, “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."