A federal judge has temporarily blocked OpenAI\u2019s use of several monikers, including \u201cCameos\u201d and \u201cCameoVideo,\u201d for elements of its Sora artificial intelligence video generation products and marketing.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee on Friday issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the San Francisco AI giant from using names that are part of an ongoing trademark dispute. <\/p>\n
The Northern California judge also set a Dec. 19 hearing to delve further into the matter.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit was brought late last month<\/a> by Chicago-based tech business Baron App, which also goes by the name of its product, Cameo. The eight-year-old firm sued OpenAI, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition. <\/p>\n In its Oct. 28 lawsuit, Baron said it has secured several U.S. Trademark Registrations for its Cameo product, which enables fans to engage celebrities<\/a> to make personalized videos to wish friends a happy birthday or other greetings. <\/p>\n Snoop Dogg, Tony Hawk, Jon Bon Jovi and Donald Trump Jr. are among celebrities who have participated, connecting with fans through Cameo, the company said in its complaint against Open AI. Cameo said its posts have been popular, attracting more than 100 million views in the past year. <\/p>\n The legal dispute began after OpenAI announced an update to its text-to-video tool Sora in September. The update included the launch of a new Sora feature that it called Cameos.<\/p>\n OpenAI\u2019s fall product update gave consumers on the Sora app the ability to scan their faces<\/a> and allow others to manipulate their facial images in AI-generated environments. YouTube influencer and boxer Jake Paul<\/a>, who is an investor in OpenAI, participated in OpenAI\u2019s Cameos\u2019 rollout. In less than five days, the Sora app hit more than 1 million downloads<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOpenAI is now using Cameo\u2019s own mark, CAMEO, to compete directly with Cameo,\u201d Baron wrote in its lawsuit against OpenAI.<\/p>\n Lawyers for the two companies argued their positions in a Tuesday hearing. <\/p>\n Lee\u2019s decision forbids OpenAI and its \u201cofficers, directors and employees from using the mark \u2018Cameo,\u2019 or any other mark that includes or is confusingly similar to \u2018Cameo,\u2019 \u201d according to her order. \u201cDefendants are ordered to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not [be] issue[d].\u201d<\/p>\n The temporary restraining order expires Dec. 22.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the court\u2019s order is temporary, we hope that OpenAI will agree to stop using our mark permanently to avoid any further harm to the public or Cameo,\u201d Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a Saturday statement. \u201cWe would like nothing more than to put this behind us so that we can focus our full attention on bringing talent and fans together as we head into the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n An OpenAI spokesperson responded in a statement: \u201cWe disagree with the complaint\u2019s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word \u2018cameo\u2019, and we look forward to continuing to make our case to the court.\u201d <\/p>\n