OpenAI is not the only company to receive trademark applications recently. ThreatGPT, MedicalGPT, DateGPT and DirtyGPT are a mere sampling of the many outfits to apply for trademarks with the United State Patent and Trademark Office in recent months. These companies hope to protect their brand by registering their name before other companies do.
ChatGPT is certainly one of the more interesting chatbots on the market, and its popularity seems only to be growing. Its ability to learn and adapt based on input is impressive, and itssimple interface makes it a great choice for anyone looking for a quick way to get started in AIchatting.
In late December, an artificial intelligence research firm called OpenAI filed a trademark application for the term “GPT.” The word is seen as a catch-all for artificial intelligence software and services that are pre-trained and ready to generate new ideas or solutions. Early last month, OpenAI petitioned the USPTO to speed up the process of approvals, citing increasing cases of infringements and counterfeit apps springing into existence. While it’s still early days for GPT as an AI term, its visibility suggests that we’re on the cusp of massive changes in how AI operates – both inside and outside of companies.
In light of OpenAI’s petition being dismissed, the agency seems to be less interested in supporting artificial intelligence development. Supporters of the technology may feel discouraged, but they should not give up on the idea altogether. There are still many ways that artificial intelligence can be used to benefit society, and it is still developing rapidly.
Assuming all goes according to plan, the trademark dispute between OpenAI and the Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind will finally be solved in five months or less. However, given the current state of the Intellectual Property (IP) landscape, any outcome is far from guaranteed. Even if OpenAI prevails in its trademark fight with DeepMind, there is no telling what repercussions this could have on future dealings between tech giants and fledgling startups.
If OpenAI secures the trademark for GPT, it could mean big things for the company. Not only could it help to bolster its name and brand, but also it might be able to secure exclusive rights to the technology – meaning that other companies would be barred from using it.
Oftentimes, the use of pre-trained models can be helpful when it comes to tasks such as text editing or image recognition. OpenAI’s GPT-1 model is no exception, as this tool has been extensively used by the company in the past.
As OpenAI becomes more well-known, the company is faced with a conundrum: how to protect its brand when it bases its claims on use rather than creation. Scher notes that this is usually a gradual process, as brands are built up through use in the marketplace. However, OpenAI was essentially unknown to the public until last year, when releasing DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT – two astonishing artificial intelligence models that generate digital images. Consequently, the company’s reputation has changed drastically in just a few months; now, many people know about OpenAI and expect high standards from it. This creates an interesting situation for the company – on one hand it needs to protect its brand by keeping its claims accurate and modestly extending them whenever possible; on the other hand it must continue developing new AI models in order to maintain fascination among consumers.
If the OpenAI trademark is approved, it will be the first of its kind in the smartphone industry. Other companies may follow suit and try to trademark their own version of GPT, potentially jeopardizing its viability. If OpenAI’s trademark is denied, there could be a scramble to create an unaffiliated competing product category before anybody else takes advantage of this pioneering technology.
OpenAI is one of the largest and most successful startups in the field of generative artificial intelligence. GPT, their proprietary technology, could be a key to unlocking their success. However, if OpenAI can’t prove that GPT is proprietary and unique to them, they may lose some of their competitive edge in the generative AI space.
If OpenAI’s algorithm obtains a patent, the public will have to account for the company’s intellectual property when making generalizations about artificial intelligence, potentially skewing public perception of AI in the near future.
As GPT spreads into the mainstream, comedians and writers alike are beginning to use it in their work. However, as the trademark remains unregistered, it is up for debate whether or not GPT can be protected in court. If people aren’t treating it as proprietary, then a trademark trial would decide if it’s protectable or not.
One potential solution to OpenAI’s reported difficulty in teaching artificial intelligence how to effectively play video games would be for the researchers to focus their efforts on another, more experiential form of entertainment. For example, they could create an AI system that could compete in online gaming tournaments or construct its own challenging computer games.
One possible reason why Facebook didn’t protect its ‘GPT’ trademark sooner is that the company may have been caught off guard by its own success in China. In 2011, ChatGPT was reportedly the most popular messaging platform on WeChat, with over 700 million monthly active users. It’s possible that Facebook was trying to get ahead of things and register a related trademark; however, it may not be able to do so now given ChatGPT’s Possibly unauthorized status.
So, according to Scher, the GPT acronym is no longer just a random collection of three letters. If a startup is looking to adopt it as its name, he tells them that it may not be safe—due to its alleged association with cybercrime. However, whether or not this opinion warrants changing the acronym’s official status remains up for debate.
Registered marks enjoy a high degree of protection under trademark law, even if the brand is not well known outside its specific sphere. For example, Rolex is one of the most famous trademarks in the world and cannot be used on anything else without facing expensive litigation. OpenAI may benefit from this facet of trademark law by establishing that “GPT” is a famous mark and therefore enjoying increased protection against unauthorized use.
The more time that passes and the more users OpenAI garners and the more coverage the company receives, the greater chance there is of that last scenario playing out- in which a company buys them outright. Although this possibility looms large, OpenAI has shown itself to be a capable player in AI development and thus should not be discounted.
Openai is a recognizable artificial intelligence company, with experts in robotics and machine learning. They are currently working on developing smarter algorithms that can create more realistic AI personalities, which could one day be inserted into virtual worlds to interact with humans.
