ChatGPT maker OpenAI has removed all the much touted promotional material and the blogpost around the $6.5 billion acquisition of former Apple designer Jonny Ive’s AI startup. While one would assume that’s owing to some resistance in the deal, that’s not the case here with reports suggesting that a trademark dispute could have led to the removal of all the promotional material.
As per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, OpenAI was sued over the name IO and a federal judge later ordered the company to remove all materials that included the name. Since then, OpenAI has also updated the old blogpost to reveal that the page is down due to a copyright complaint by iyO.
“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.” OpenAI said in the blogpost.
Notably, OpenAI had announced the acquisition of Ive’s AI startup in May along with the news that Ive and his team would be working with the ChatGPT maker to work on a new secretive hardware products. The deal involved OpenAI acquiring Ive’s startup called IO products and merging his team with that of its own research and engineering departments.
“The deal is expected to be completed this summer, pending regulatory approvals. The takeover of io will provide OpenAI with about 55 hardware engineers, software developers and manufacturing experts — a team that will build what Ive and Altman expect to be a family of devices. The two executives had already been exploring some early ideas for about two years” OpenAI had said in its announcement blogpost.
What is iyO?
As per a TechCrunch report, iyO is a a generative AI company which is spun out of the Alphabet X “moonshot factory” in 2021. The company is founded by Jason Rugolo and aims to deliver screen-free, voice first computing experience. It’s first product is the iyO One earbuds that allow users to interact naturally with AI agnets for tasks like controlling music, looking up information and more.
“This is an utterly baseless complaint and we’ll fight it vigorously,” a spokesperson for Ive was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
