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AI Startup Perplexity Demanded Alleged Trademark Infringement

Perplexity, the venture-backed start-up structure AI-powered search products, has been taken legal action against in federal court for apparently violating another company’s hallmark.

In a complaint submitted Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, lawyers representing a company called Perplexity Solved Solutions implicate Perplexity of infringing on its hallmark rights by utilizing the brand name “Perplexity.”

Perplexity Solved Solutions, a Plano, Texas-based company established in 2017, applied to register the Perplexity hallmark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in October 2021, according to the problem.

Perplexity Solved Solutions mainly offers HR and workplace collaboration software, including an unified control panel for HR analytics and a videoconferencing tool called Perplexity Meet. The business protected a hallmark registration by November 2022 and started promoting products on its website, perplexityonline.com, a domain that Perplexity Solved Solutions had registered in 2021.

Perplexity and counsel for Perplexity Solved Solutions did not react since press time. TechCrunch will upgrade the short article if either celebration comments.

The Texas company declares that AI startup Perplexity began infringing on its trademark “in or around” August 2022 to promote its AI-powered search engine. The month prior – July 2022 – Perplexity had signed up the domain perplexity.ai, which the complaint likewise declares is violation.

“The [Perplexity] site currently located at the infringing domain name plainly includes the Perplexity [trademark],” the complaint checks out,” [and] the infringing goods and services are highly comparable to those used by Perplexity [Solved Solutions] and attract a similar consumer base. For example, Perplexity [Solved Solutions’] ‘Perplexity Meet’ and offender’s ‘Perplexity Spaces’ both are software application platforms that help with interaction and cooperation among associates in companies and other organizations.”

Spaces, which the San Francisco-based AI start-up released for business clients in October, are hubs with an adjustable AI assistant and adapters to third-party platforms, apps, and file systems.

The grievance declares that Perplexity has “saturated the market” with its infringing branding, consisting of marketing across its different social networks accounts. The AI start-up declined to buy the Perplexity hallmark in September 2023 when provided, per the grievance, and rather chose to file for its own hallmark with the USPTO, which is still pending.

According to the complaint, Perplexity didn’t abide by a stop and desist letter from Perplexity Solved Solutions’ counsel, and it hasn’t withdrawn its pending hallmark application – regardless of efforts to oppose the application before the USPTO’s trial and appeal board.

Attorneys for Perplexity Solved Solutions say that Perplexity’s usage of its trademark is likely to sow confusion.

“In truth, upon information and belief, consumers currently have actually been puzzled,” the grievance reads. “For instance, on many events, social networks users have actually ‘tagged’ Perplexity in their posts about defendant’s infringing goods and services.”

The problem declares that Perplexity’s conduct breaches laws, consisting of the Lanham Act – the U.S. federal law that manages hallmarks and unreasonable competition. Among other kinds of legal relief, Perplexity Solved Solutions is looking for to bar Perplexity from using its trademark, in addition to the trademark “Perplexity AI,” pay damages, and transfer ownership of any domains that include Perplexity branding.

It’s the most recent courtroom headache for Perplexity, which is currently battling a claim submitted by News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post over what the plaintiffs explain as a “content kleptocracy.” Many other news sites have actually expressed concerns that Perplexity closely reproduces their material – simply last October, The New York Times sent out the start-up a cease and desist letter.

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