On July 21, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held that Open Artificial Intelligence, Inc. (OAI) infringed OpenAI, Inc.’s trademark due to the similarity of their names, differing only by a space.

OpenAI, one of today’s most prominent AI companies, was founded in December 2015. Ravine, the owner of OAI, purchased the domain “open.ai” nine months earlier and applied to register the trademark “Open AI” (with a space) one day after OpenAI launched. At the time Ravine was only using OAI as an information-sharing platform.

Since both companies now use similar marks for the same services, the court’s examination focused on which party had prior use. It found that OpenAI had first used the mark for a generative AI tool and therefore held the trademark rights for that service. The court also found a likelihood of confusion due to the near-identical marks operating in the same market, as OAI later launched many AI generator tools similar to those of OpenAI.

The case shares elements with one form of cybersquatting, where third parties register the same or similar domain names to benefit from consumer confusion. Given OpenAI’s success, OAI’s actions were potentially opportunistic, and the court ordered OAI to refrain from using any identical or similar marks in connection with websites, apps and domain names. OAI’s counsel has indicated it will appeal.

For further reading from our website on the topics discussed here, see the following insights and IP Bits & Pieces®: An Update on Strategies to Address Cybersquatting Proactively and our AI and Trademark FAQs.