OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court

OpenAI 在欧盟法院的商标纠纷中败诉

OpenAI, the US company behind ChatGPT, has lost its legal challenge against the refusal to register the trademark “OPENAI” at the European Union’s General Court. ChatGPT 背后的美国公司 OpenAI 在欧盟普通法院针对其商标注册申请被拒一事提起的法律诉讼中败诉。

The Luxembourg-based court ruled that, for certain software and information technology goods and services, the term is purely descriptive and therefore lacks the distinctiveness required for trademark protection. The ruling can still be appealed to the European Court of Justice. 这家位于卢森堡的法院裁定，对于某些软件和信息技术产品及服务而言，该术语纯属描述性词汇，因此缺乏商标保护所必需的显著性。该裁决仍可向欧洲法院提起上诉。

The court’s judgment upheld a decision by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The office had partially rejected OpenAI’s application for trademark registration, for example in relation to software and cloud computing services. 法院的判决维持了欧盟知识产权局（EUIPO）的决定。该机构此前部分驳回了 OpenAI 的商标注册申请，例如涉及软件和云计算服务的部分。

The EUIPO found that the word “open” would be understood by the relevant public as meaning freely accessible, while the combination with “AI” (artificial intelligence) would be interpreted as referring to products based on openly accessible artificial intelligence. 欧盟知识产权局认为，相关公众会将“open”（开放）一词理解为“可自由访问”之意，而与“AI”（人工智能）的组合则会被解读为基于可公开访问的人工智能产品。

OpenAI had argued that the word “open” has multiple possible meanings and that “OPENAI” is a coined term without a fixed meaning. The company also cited comparable trademark registrations previously granted by the EUIPO and registrations in more than 30 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Singapore. OpenAI 此前辩称，“open”一词有多种可能的含义，“OPENAI”是一个没有固定含义的自造词。该公司还列举了欧盟知识产权局此前批准的类似商标注册，以及包括英国和新加坡在内的 30 多个国家的注册情况。

The court rejected these arguments. It ruled that the combination of words was not an unusual linguistic combination in English. Furthermore, registrations in other jurisdictions were not binding under EU trademark law. 法院驳回了这些论点。法院裁定，这一词汇组合在英语中并非不寻常的语言组合。此外，在其他司法管辖区的注册情况对欧盟商标法并无约束力。