Trademark Dispute Leads to the Disappearance of ‘io’, OpenAI and LoveFrom’s Secretive AI Collaboration

Hayden Field, reporting for The Verge:

OpenAI has scrubbed mentions of io, the hardware startup co-founded by famous Apple designer Jony Ive, from its website and social media channels. The sudden change closely follows their recent announcement of OpenAI’s nearly $6.5 billion acquisition and plans to create dedicated AI hardware.

OpenAI tells The Verge the deal is still happening, but it scrubbed mentions due to a trademark lawsuit from Iyo, the hearing device startup spun out of Google’s moonshot factory.

If you visit the “Sam and Jony” page on OpenAI’s website — where the short film teasing io used to be — it now simply says:

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.

Perhaps I’m not paying close enough attention, but this is the first I’ve heard of iyO. The two names certainly sound alike but they don’t look alike. Are homophones trademarkable? I would expect a terse letter from Coca-Cola’s lawyers if I tried selling soda under name “Koke” (or like Ted Nancy tried, Kiet Doke), so I guess so.

I suppose the question is how did OpenAI not see this coming, knowing that Google is probably their biggest rival? (Not to mention that Google might feel salty about the encroachment on their I/O developer conference name.)

★ Monday, 23 June 2025