The trademark dispute comes just a month after OpenAI revealed plans to acquire Ive’s hardware start-up in a bet on alternatives to the smartphone as the dominant device to access AI.
Over the weekend, OpenAI removed a blog post and short video about the deal, following a restraining order by a US federal judge on Friday. OpenAI and LoveFrom, Ive’s design firm, have denied any intentional trademark infringement or wrongdoing.
In its lawsuit, filed this month, iyO detailed the meetings between Rugolo, OpenAI and Ive’s team leading up to May.
Tan requested that several team members try out the iyO device, according to emails disclosed in the suit. Tan, Welinder, and Evans Hankey — the former Apple design chief who joined Ive at io — met iyO again in May for a presentation of its product, according to the lawsuit.
They were talking about buying our company, said Rugolo.They got everything, right down to how the software stack works. I foolishly trusted them, because I thought we were collaborating and serious about working together.The meetings came three years after an initial round of contacts. In April 2022, iyO said it met Ryan Cohen, an executive at Altman’s personal investment fund Apollo Projects, and LoveFrom team member and former Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp. Both passed on investing at the time.
Michael Acton & Cristina Criddle
What a perfect analogy for LLMs, copying original work from others and claiming it as their own! Although in business these kind of maneuvers are well-known: walk up to a smaller company with promises of investments or even an acquisition, get them to show you their most-prized ideas to prove their worth, then walk away and launch something similar to bury them essentially for free.
Naturally, San Altman disputes this version of events, and most tech publications covering this have adopted a defensive tone, possibly to not antagonize the rising tech mogul. With a trial date set for January 2028, this could delay OpenAI’s lofty plans for an AI hardware device somewhat – well, if they have any devices in the pipeline that is, which to me seems rather farfetched.
sam and i have shared emails going back to 2022 when i pitched iyO to his personal firm apollo projects. this particular email from sam was probably the worst email i've ever received in my professional life. when an investor you pitched everything to, especially such a…
— jason rugolo (@jasonRugolo) June 25, 2025
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