News has been limited on OpenAI’s upcoming device. While a few details had made their way out, the company was holding onto the mystery. But now, thanks to a trademark lawsuit, some key details are known.
After recently acquiring IO, the design studio led by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive, OpenAI has been hinting at its upcoming first device. However, this process has been halted by a lawsuit from audio device startup Iyo.
The startup claimed that OpenAI and the IO team had willfully infringed its copyright, knowingly copying the company's first device — a yet-to-be-released in-ear headphone that it had marketed as the world’s first audio computer.
Along with halting the production of OpenAI’s upcoming product, the lawsuit has also highlighted key details. In court filings, members of the IO team testified that the device won’t be a wearable or an in-ear device.
More importantly, they also stated that the device won’t ship until “at least” 2026. That is the first official confirmation that has come out about the device’s launch date since it was first announced.
The lawsuit
This lawsuit is still in its early stages. On Friday, June 20, a federal judge ruled that IYO has a strong enough trademark infringement case to proceed to a hearing in October.
Because of the similarities of the names IYO and IO, OpenAI was told to hold all marketing of the product or any relationship that the company has with Jony Ive’s company, despite recently spending a whopping $6.5 billion to acquire it.
Since this news, OpenAI scrubbed their website of all mentions of the new venture, including the official announcement post.
IYO has provided emails that show leaders from IO and OpenAI (including Sam Altman) knew about the company and the product it was building. These emails even show they asked to demo the product.
“For many months after its founding, io surveyed the existing commercial offerings and engaged in prototyping exercises, as it considered a broad range of form factors, including objects that were desktop-based and mobile, wireless and wired, wearable and portable,” OpenAI responded to the lawsuit, according to The Verge.
As part of these early efforts, io purchased a wide range of earbuds, hearing aids, and at least 30 different headphone sets from a variety of different companies.”
This lawsuit could go on for a while, potentially seeing OpenAI’s new product delayed even further for release. Until it is resolved, it is likely that all marketing will continue to be halted.
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