[calny]

I’m an IP lawyer & AI dev: my first reaction was, “hmm there are trademark issues here.” From a US perspective: “Perplexity” certainly CAN be a trademark, and the company has applied for one—to my knowledge it’s still pending. If the term was merely “descriptive” of the service provided, like “American Airlines”, then the company would need to show that the term has acquired distinctiveness: ie, that purchasers associate the term with that specific company. But perplexity is probably more than merely descriptive here.

Assuming that they have a valid trademark, the issue becomes whether there is a likelihood of confusion between Perplexity and Perplexica. That is a fact-specific, multifactor test, which I’ll spare you. But there could be arguments both ways IMO

EDIT: trademark issues aside, cool project!

[jay-barronville]

HN is so incredible. The topic can be just about anything and there’s someone here with just the right expertise and/or set of skills to share their two pennies. The current topic is AI and IP law and here comes someone who’s an IP lawyer and AI engineer. I truly love this place.