Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hackerfactor1 1123 days ago
Disclaimer: I'm not an attorney and this is not legal advice.

1. Can you claim that GPT are your initials? (Is your name George Patrick Tanner? Gina Parker Taylor?)

2. If you are using it for AI, then you're not going to be able to show that "GPT" is a term of art predating their company. The first appearance of the term for AI is from a paper by OpenAI.

3. Check the dates. Did you register your domain name before they filed their patent/trademark? (They filed in on Feb 3, 2023.) If so, then you have an argument for prior art.

4. Don't make an offer to sell (even in jest) without talking to an attorney. They could interpret it as a bad-faith negotiation and take the domain.

5. Do you plan to use the web site for something unrelated to AI? Information about GUID Partition Tables? Goniopora Toxin? General-purpose technologies? Generalized probabilistic theory? Grounded practical theory? Anything like this doesn't compete with their trademark.
2 comments
est31 1123 days ago
> They filed in on Feb 3, 2023.

IANAL but that's just the swiss trademark. The US trademark is from Dec 22, 2022. Serial number 97733259.

link
moogly 1123 days ago
It would'be been so apt had it been Dec 22, 2012.
link
TuringNYC 1123 days ago
>> 1. Can you claim that GPT are your initials? (Is your name George Patrick Tanner? Gina Parker Taylor?)

That didnt work so well in the past:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._MikeRoweSoft

link
account42 1123 days ago
> A settlement was eventually reached

Or in other words, we didn't get to find out how well it would work.

> Robertson opined that – had legal proceedings ensued – Rowe would have made a strong argument for keeping his domain, as he was using his real name and was not claiming to be affiliated with Microsoft.

link
TuringNYC 1123 days ago
>> Or in other words, we didn't get to find out how well it would work.

What small company or individual has the tens of thousands of spare dollars to actually litigate/defend? It doesn't matter if a settlement was reached or whether a strong argument was made --- if you have to spend 10k, or 15k, or 20k to go retain lawyers...it hasn't worked out well!

link