The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has granted iyO’s preliminary injunction request, preventing OpenAI and Jony Ive’s new hardware venture from using the io branding. Here are the details.
Last year, Sam Altman and Jony Ive announced that their companies would join forces under a new venture called io to develop AI-powered products.
Soon after, a company called iyO filed a lawsuit, alleging trademark infringement. iyO secured a temporary restraining order, prompting OpenAI to scrub mentions of the newly formed venture from the web.
In the weeks that followed, iyO and OpenAI filed multiple documents indicating that the companies had been in touch prior to the io announcement, including product demos.
OpenAI argued that some of that outreach involved unsolicited information and investment requests from iyO, while iyO recently amended its lawsuit to allege trade secret theft.
In the meantime, iyO also submitted the results of a consumer survey to the court, arguing that the brands were similar enough to likely cause confusion among customers if OpenAI were to release products too close to its own offerings, such as connected headphones.
OpenAI, for its part, argued that its first product would not be an AI-powered wearable and added earlier this year that it no longer planned to use the io branding at all, asking the court to dismiss the case.
Which brings us to today.
In a decision issued yesterday, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson granted iyO’s request for a preliminary injunction, essentially barring OpenAI from using the io branding.
Essentially, Judge Thompson wasn’t convinced by OpenAI’s decision to voluntarily drop the use of the io branding, and raised questions about whether the company might resume use of the mark in the future.
She added that if OpenAI truly does not plan to use the mark, an injunction shouldn’t make a difference, but if it does, it protects iyO.
She also found that iyO “is likely to succeed on the merits of its Trademark Claim”, and conceded that iyO could continue to suffer “irreparable harm (…), including an inability to obtain new investors, the depletion of its funding, and the usurpation of its brand equity.”
You can read her full decision below:
Following the injunction, the case is now moving deeper into discovery. In a different decision also issued yesterday, Judge Peter H. Kang ordered lawyers for both sides to meet and confer over ongoing discovery disputes, and report back to the court “no later than May 29, 2026.”
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