U.S. Rejects OpenAI's Trademark Application, Says Registering GPT Would Harm Competitor Competition
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According to media reports, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has ultimately rejected OpenAI's request to trademark 'GPT,' stating that the term is merely a description of the technology it represents, too generic, and could prevent competitors from describing their products as GPT.
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the term GPT has already been widely used in the tech industry, including by giants like Amazon, which has publicly discussed the use of GPT models. This widespread adoption of such a technical term weakens its uniqueness as a trademark specific to OpenAI's products.
While OpenAI is not prohibited from using the GPT name, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision limits the organization's ability to monopolize the term. Therefore, the market may see widespread adoption of products and services bearing the GPT name without any direct affiliation with OpenAI, such as the various 'TalkGPT' applications already present in app stores.
In fact, this isn't the first time the U.S. has rejected OpenAI's trademark claims for GPT, with a previous instance occurring in May 2023. Despite lacking formal trademark protection, OpenAI may focus on strengthening its brand identity around the GPT series.