OpenAI and Former Apple Designers Fend Off Trademark Dispute Over 'io' Name
Jun/25/2025
In a recent filing before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, OpenAI, io Products, and their collaborators — including former Apple design icon Sir Jonathan Ive — presented a rebuttal to iyO Inc.’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. iyO, a startup specializing in custom audio devices, alleged trademark infringement over its pending 'IYO' mark, filed on July 17, 2023. Following visualisation shows detail info on this pending 'IYO' trademark filed by iyO Inc., illustrating its scope and intended application in the wearable audio space. The defendants countered that the dispute lacks ripeness, as no io-branded product has been commercialized, advertised, or offered for sale, making any risk of consumer confusion purely speculative. They highlighted that io’s vision for AI-integrated hardware remains at least a year from market entry and that the Sleekcraft confusion factors cannot be meaningfully assessed absent concrete commercial activity. Further, the defense underscored iyO’s highly specialized, professional customer base—musicians, engineers, and auditory scientists—as unlikely to conflate the parties. The motion, they argued, amounted to a tactical ploy to pressure business negotiations rather than address a legitimate legal grievance.
