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MagyarGPT is not a trademark: Open AI denied again from registering 'GPT' as a trade name
No one can deny that Open AI's ChatGPT was a revolutionary technology that helped introduce AI to the average consumer. No objective review on language models will exclude ChatGPT from discussion. And virtually no one will see the term ‘GPT’ without thinking of Open AI's chatbot, as a matter of fact. Yet, the latest ruling of the US Patent and Trademark Office is clear: GPTs are not a trademark, even if Open AI thinks otherwise.
This isn't Open AI's first attempt at trademarking the term ‘GPT’. Its AI models have all been named following a GPT scheme(GPT-1 through GPT-4), and it has doubled down on naming its custom chatbots as ‘GPTs’. Yet, in May 2023, the US-PTO denied Open AI's trademark application for the term GPT, arguing that the mark was merely a descriptive term. However, this was not a binding decision, which led to Open AI's second attempt.
While the underlying ‘transformer’ architecture used in most AI models was invented by Google in 2017, Open AI built upon the model and called them “Generative Pre-trained Transformers” in a 2018 paper. They're GPTs because they generate material that appears wholly new, having been pre-trained on large datasets that allows them to effectively transform prompts into text-based responses, images and even video. The idea gained prominence in AI circles, but Open AI swiftly released its chatbot, effectively popularizing the term.
Open AI used this argument in its recent trademark application, but it failed to convince the Feds. The US-PTO reiterated that the term was generic, “merely descriptive” and a “widely used acronym” that consumers familiar with the technology would immediately recognize. In its official response, the trademark office wrote that:
A generic mark, being the ‘ultimate in descriptiveness,’ cannot acquire distinctiveness and thus is not entitled to registration on either the Principal or Supplemental Register under any circumstances.”
The report calls this a ‘final’ office action, but Open AI still has one more shot at appropriating the GPT branding for itself. The San Francisco firm can still appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Knowing how invested the company is in the brand, it most likely will take that appeal.
If Open AI eventually has its way, it strips off the chances of other companies to use GPT-related nomenclature to describe their products, even if they are also based on GPT technology. Whether or not that happens, it's safe to say that ChatGPT has a dominant hold on the attention of the average person, and this will largely remain so for much of the foreseeable future.
Buy Nathan Hunter's book, The Art of Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT, available on Kindle, Paperback and Hardcover on Amazon.
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