OpenAI OpCo, LLC filed an application to register the mark GPT for use in connection with its AI products. Last month, the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) refused registration of the mark on the grounds that “GPT” is both “merely descriptive” and “generic.”
To be protectable, a trademark must be “distinctive.” This means it must be used to identify the source of the product or service.
Courts classify marks into categories of distinctiveness. The most distinctive marks are those that are arbitrary or fanciful. Examples include EXXON for gasoline and APPLE for electronics.
Suggestive marks, those that require some imagination to determine the nature of the goods or services, are also protectable. An example is MUSTANG for fast cars.
A descriptive mark receives trademark protection only if the mark’s owner can prove that the mark has acquired “secondary meaning” in the minds of the relevant public. In other words, consumers must associate the mark with a unique source and think of the term as a brand name rather than as a description.
For example, TV GUIDE is descriptive of a guide to TV programs, but because of its extensive advertising, promotion and public recognition, this mark has achieved secondary meaning and is protectable.
A generic term is the name for a general class of product or service. Take, for example, a shoe manufacturer with a line of sandals branded as SANDALS. When consumers see that term, they’ll think of open shoes with straps from any manufacturer, not just your brand. Generic terms receive no trademark protection.
Here, the PTO found that GPT is a widely used acronym that means “generative pre-trained transformers.” These are neural network models that “give applications the ability to create human-like text and content (images, music, and more), and answer questions in a conversational manner.”
Because the applicant uses the GPT mark in connection with a variety of software goods and services involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing and generation, the PTO concluded that consumers encountering the GPT acronym would understand GPT to describe a feature of the applicant’s products and services.
This decision is a good reminder of the importance of choosing a good trademark that serves to identify the source of your product or service.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about or need help with choosing, protecting, or enforcing your trademarks.
Photo by Choong Deng Xiang on Unsplash
