OpenAI can't register GPT as trademark, rules US patent office

In a setback for Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has refused to allow the Sam Altman-run company to register the word GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) as a trademark.

OpenAI argued in its application with the PTO that GPT is not a “descriptive word” because consumers will not immediately understand what the underlying phrase "generative pre-trained transformer" means.

“The trademark examining attorney is not convinced. The Internet evidence demonstrates the extensive and pervasive use in the software industry of the acronym 'GPT' in connection with software that features similar AI technology with ask and answer functions based on pre-trained data sets,” the US PTO wrote in its decision.

The fact that consumers may not know the underlying words of the acronym “does not alter the fact that relevant purchasers are adapted to recognising that the term ‘GPT’ is commonly used in connection with software to identify a particular type of software that features this AI ask and answer technology”.

As generative AI use surged last year, several AI companies added GPT to their product names.

However, GPT became popular after OpenAI launched the AI model ChatGPT, that takes user prompts to answer in a way humans do.

The company started calling its custom chatbots GPTs and has just released its text-to-video generation model called Sora.