OpenAI has been forced to remove online content promoting its high-profile partnership with Sir Jony Ive’s hardware startup io, following a trademark dispute with AI earbud maker iyO.
The ChatGPT developer confirmed it had taken down promotional materials from its website, including a dedicated page and a video featuring Ive and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman discussing their $6.4 billion (£4.8 billion) venture. The video, however, remains available on YouTube.
The legal row stems from a trademark complaint filed by iyO, a tech startup that develops artificial intelligence-powered earbuds. While the dispute has prompted OpenAI to scrub online references to io, the company clarified that the complaint does not affect the deal itself.
“This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name ‘io’. We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
The collaboration between Ive, the legendary designer behind many of Apple’s most iconic products, and Altman is seen as one of the most ambitious fusions of design and AI in recent tech history.
In the original video, Ive described the partnership as a culmination of decades of work: “I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this place, to this moment.”
Altman, meanwhile, described a prototype device from Ive’s team as “the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”
While details remain closely guarded, the new AI-enabled device is expected to launch next year. Reports suggest it will be a discreet piece of hardware designed to sit alongside existing gadgets like the iPhone or MacBook Pro, offering environmental awareness and context-based intelligence.
Despite previous remarks from Ive about the unintended societal downsides of smartphones, Altman said the aim of their device is not to replace the smartphone entirely. “In the same way that the smartphone didn’t make the laptop go away, I don’t think our first thing is going to make the smartphone go away. It is a totally new kind of thing,” he told Bloomberg in May.
The trademark conflict highlights the increasingly crowded landscape of consumer AI hardware startups, where even subtly similar brand names can trigger legal clashes.
iyO, which has not yet publicly commented on the dispute, has been contacted for further clarification.
