OpenAI’s legal fight with iyO reached a new stage after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an order that stops OpenAI from using the io branding. The dispute centers on a trademark clash that began shortly after OpenAI announced its partnership with Jony Ive’s io company.
The tension started earlier this year when iyO Inc. sued OpenAI over alleged trademark infringement. Court filings showed that iyO CEO Jason Rugolo had once approached Evans Hankey while she was still Apple’s design chief, long before she joined Ive’s new venture.
The filings also revealed that Ive and Sam Altman decided on the name io in mid-2023, while Rugolo contacted Altman in early 2025 to discuss funding a human-computer interface project.
As the documents continued to surface, they showed Rugolo told Altman that he wanted to work together and even suggested that OpenAI buy ioY for $200 million. Yet OpenAI argued that its first io product would not be an in-ear device and insisted that Rugolo had freely shared details about his company.
Court upholds the TRO
The court initially sided with iyO and issued a Temporary Restraining Order that forced OpenAI to remove all references to the io brand, including the announcement video. OpenAI then appealed to the 9th Circuit, but on Thursday, the panel upheld the TRO.
According to the Daily Journal and court documents, the court agreed with several key claims. First, it said that IO and iyO sound identical and involve related categories, since both companies plan to sell computers that rely on natural language interaction.
Second, it acknowledged the risk of reverse confusion because a larger company like OpenAI could overwhelm a smaller senior brand and cause buyers to think the smaller firm is a copycat. Third, it accepted that OpenAI’s fast launch threatened iyO’s fundraising and brand identity.
The dispute now returns to the district court for a full Preliminary Injunction hearing. That hearing will decide if the limits stay as they are, become tighter, or loosen over time. The schedule already stretches into 2026, and both fact discovery and expert discovery run well into 2027 and 2028, so you should expect this fight to continue for years.
