A federal district court in Northern California ruled in favor of Cameo, a platform that allows users to receive personalized video messages from celebrities, and ordered OpenAI to stop using “Cameo” in its products and features.
OpenAI used the name ‘Cameo’ for its Sora 2 AI video creation app. Users could use this feature to insert digital likenesses of themselves into AI-generated videos. In a ruling filed Saturday, the court said the name was similar enough to confuse users and rejected OpenAI’s argument that “Cameo” was merely descriptive, finding that it “suggests rather than describes the feature.”
In November, the court issued a temporary restraining order against Cameo and prevented OpenAI from using the word. The AI company then rename the attribute to “Characters” after this order.
“We’ve spent nearly a decade building a brand that represents talent-friendly interactions and genuine connection, and we like to say that ‘each Cameo is an advertisement for the next.’ Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement.
“This decision is a critical victory not only for our company, but for the integrity of our market and the thousands of creators who trust the Cameo name. We will continue to vigorously defend our intellectual property against any platform that attempts to trade on the goodwill and recognition we’ve worked so hard to build,” he noted.
“We disagree with the complaint’s claim that anyone can claim exclusive ownership of the word ‘cameo’ and look forward to continuing to defend our case,” an OpenAI spokesperson said Reuters in response to the decision.
OpenAI has been embroiled in several intellectual property cases in recent months. Earlier this month, the company dropped the “IO” brand on its upcoming hardware products, according to court documents obtained by WIRED. In November, digital library app OverDrive sued OpenAI about using “Sora” for the video maker app. The company is also engaged in legal disputes with various artists, creatives and media groups in various geographies over copyright infringements.
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