US Court Grants Preliminary Injunction: OpenAI and Jony Ive's AI Hardware Project Forbidden from Using io Brand

The US District Court for the Northern District of California recently granted a preliminary injunction to iyO Inc., barring OpenAI's hardware joint venture with former Apple chief design officer Jonathan Ive from using the "io" brand. The dispute began in May 2025 when OpenAI and Ive planned to use "io" as the brand name for their AI hardware products, prompting iyO to file a trademark infringement lawsuit.

iyO's consumer survey revealed that the "io" brand is highly similar to its own, likely to cause consumer confusion. While OpenAI claimed it had decided to drop the brand, the judge deemed this voluntary abandonment unpersuasive and couldn't exclude future use. Thus, the injunction was issued to prevent irreparable losses to iyO, such as difficulty securing new investments and brand asset erosion.