OpenAI’s trademark battle for “GPT” ends in defeat: What’s next for ChatGPT?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s denial of OpenAI’s attempt to trademark “GPT” is a setback for the organization’s branding efforts. The ruling stated that the term is “merely descriptive” and therefore cannot be registered. Despite this, OpenAI’s competitors are unlikely to rush to release their own versions of the popular chatbot, ChatGPT.
ChatGPT has become the most recognizable brand in AI, being the most popular conversational model on the market and the one that has brought large language models into the global spotlight. However, the USPTO’s decision means that OpenAI cannot use the “TM” symbol to indicate trademark protection for the name.
In the OpenAI GPT trademark battle, the company claimed to have popularized the term “generative pre-trained transformer,” or GPT, to describe the characteristics of the machine learning model. The term “generative” refers to its ability to produce new material, “pre-trained” indicates that it is trained on a large dataset, and “transformer” is a method of building AIs that allows for training much larger models. However, the USPTO noted that GPT was already in use in various contexts by other companies, such as Amazon.
From the patent office’s perspective, GPT describes a fundamental aspect of the product, similar to trying to trademark “crunchy” for a cereal called Crunchy O’s. In the case of ChatGPT, it is a type of AI model that you can chat with, but OpenAI did not create this concept and is not the only company offering such models.
The denial of the trademark may lead to a dilution of OpenAI’s dominance over GPT-related terminology. Other similar products, like “TalkGPT,” could begin to appear in app stores without fear of legal action from OpenAI. However, OpenAI still holds a significant advantage in terms of brand recognition. When people think of GPT, they are likely to think of OpenAI first, despite the lack of a trademark.
In response to this setback, OpenAI may choose to double down on the GPT branding, emphasizing its status as the original creator of this type of AI model. While legal protections may be limited, OpenAI can continue to leverage its strong brand presence to maintain its position in the market.
Overall, the denial of the trademark for “GPT” is a blow to OpenAI’s branding efforts, but it is unlikely to significantly impact its market dominance. The organization will need to continue innovating and differentiating its products to stay ahead in the competitive AI landscape.
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