The patent office also highlighted that the term GPT is already being used in various other contexts and by other companies in related fields. This could potentially dilute OpenAI's dominance over GPT-related terminology, and they may not be able to sue others for using their brand. However, OpenAI still holds the most significant mindshare when it comes to the term "GPT", giving them the first-brander advantage. Despite the lack of legal protections, OpenAI might continue to use the GPT branding to ensure their association with the term.
Key takeaways:
- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has denied OpenAI’s attempt to trademark “GPT,” stating that the term is “merely descriptive” and therefore unable to be registered.
- OpenAI argued that it had popularized the term GPT, which stands for “generative pre-trained transformer,” describing the nature of the machine learning model.
- The patent office pointed out that GPT was already in use in numerous other contexts and by other companies in related ones, like Amazon.
- Despite the lack of a trademark, OpenAI still retains the first-brander advantage and may continue to use the GPT branding.