OpenAI’s Sam Altman slams AI company for ‘silly’ trademark lawsuit
The post OpenAI’s Sam Altman slams AI company for ‘silly’ trademark lawsuit appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Sam Altman, the CEO at OpenAI, said the trademark lawsuit by startup IYO was “silly, disappointing, and wrong,” after the company claimed OpenAI’s partnership with former Apple Inc. Chief Designer Jony Ive’s AI firm, “IO,” infringed on its brand. However, a judge granted IYO a temporary restraining order, forcing OpenAI to take down a blog post mentioning the deal. Altman pointed out that the founder and CEO of IYO, Jason Rugolo, persistently hoped that OpenAI would invest at least $10M in (or acquire) his company. The OpenAI boss clarified that IYO’s founder had sought an acquisition, an investment, and an intellectual property deal, but that his company decided to pass on the deal, and it was clear along the way. However, IYO alleged that Altman and OpenAI heard their pitch, passed on it, got Jony Ive to try it before copying it, then bought his company for $6.5B and called it IO. jason rugolo had been hoping we would invest in or acquire his company iyo and was quite persistent in his efforts. we passed and were clear along the way. now he is suing openai over the name. this is silly, disappointing and wrong. pic.twitter.com/k5oKHGLw0s — Sam Altman (@sama) June 24, 2025 Deedy calls it the most dramatic tech lawsuit this year VC at Menlo Ventures, Deedy Das, asserted that this was likely the year’s most dramatic tech lawsuit. The IYO team claimed Jony and Altman’s actions were no mere coincidence, and that the duo knew about the company’s existence and the nature of its business since 2022. The company also emphasized that OpenAI and LoveFrom kept tabs on IYO’s technology despite declining to pursue the proposed partnership in 2022. It mentioned that the Co-founder of IO, Tang Yew Tan, and another engineer (from LoveFrom or IO) ordered its…
Filed under: News - @ June 25, 2025 11:20 am