Elon Musk’s xAI is going through a possible trademark dispute over the title of its chatbot, Grok. The corporate’s trademark software with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace has been suspended after the company argued the title may very well be confused with that of two different corporations, AI chipmaker Groq and software program supplier Grokstream. Now, a 3rd tech startup referred to as Bizly is claiming it owns the rights to “Grok.”
This isn’t the primary time Musk has chosen a reputation for one in all his merchandise that different corporations say they trademarked first. Final month, Musk’s social media platform settled a lawsuit introduced by a advertising agency that claimed it owns unique rights to the title X.
Bizly and xAI seem to have arrived on the title Grok independently. Bizly founder Ron Shah says he got here up with it throughout a brainstorming session with a colleague who used the phrase as a verb. (The phrase “to grok” is incessantly utilized in tech circles to imply “to grasp.”) “I used to be like, that’s precisely the title,” Shah tells WIRED. “We received excited, high-fived, it was the title!”
Musk has mentioned he named his chatbot after a time period used within the 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Unusual Land, based on The Occasions of India. Writer Robert A. Heinlein imagined “grok” as a phrase in a Martian lexicon that additionally meant “to grasp.”
Shah says he utilized to trademark the title Grok in 2021. Two years later, he was within the midst of launching an AI-powered stay occasions app referred to as Grok when Musk introduced his chatbot with the identical title. “It was a day I’ll always remember,” Shah says. “I awakened and checked out my cellphone, and there have been so many messages from associates saying ‘did you get acquired by Elon? Congrats!’ It was an entire shock to me.”
Shah insists xAI infringed on his trademark. However below US regulation, trademark laws are primarily designed to guard shoppers reasonably than corporations, says Josh Gerben, founding father of Gerben IP, a regulation agency centered completely on logos. “The aim is to not have confusion as to who’s behind a services or products,” he says.
For instance, Musk’s former companion Grimes additionally trademarked the title Grok for a plushie AI-powered youngsters toy, however that software could be very totally different from a software program software, decreasing the chance of shoppers getting them combined up. “The main points matter,” Gerben says. “What does the unique Grok do, and what does this new one do? Are they working in the identical channel of commerce?”
In Bizly’s case, the solutions to these questions are pretty murky. One of many necessities of registering a trademark is that homeowners must display it’s getting used to promote items or providers in at the least two states. The USPTO additionally permits individuals to file a trademark to order the rights to a reputation earlier than a enterprise is launched, however they will’t truly register it till, say, their jewellery web site is absolutely up and operating or their pizza parlor chain expands right into a neighboring state.