Elon Musk’s lamb is facing a possible mark dispute on the name of his chat, Grok. The company’s trademark application with the United States Patent and Patent Office has been suspended after the agency argues that the name could be confused with that of two other companies, Ai Chipmaker Groq and the Grokstream software provider. Now, a third technology startup called Bizly claims that he owns the rights of “Grok”.
This is not the first time that Musk has chosen a name for one of its products that other companies say they first marked. Last month, Musk’s social media platform resolved a lawsuit filed by a marketing company that stated that it has exclusive rights to the X name.
Bizly and lamb seem to have reached the name of Grok independently. Bizly’s founder Ron Shah says he arrived at his session during a brainstorming session with a colleague who used the word as a verb. (The phrase “A Grok” is frequently used in technological circles to mean “understanding”) “I was like, exactly the name,” says Shah in Wired. “We were excited, it hurt, it was the name!”
Musk has said he named his chat after a term used in the 1961 science fiction novel Unknown in a strange land, According to the times of India. Author Robert A. Heinlein imagined “Grok” as a word in a Martian lexicon who also meant “understanding”.
Shah says he requested that Grok’s name requested in 2021. Two years later he was in the midst of launching a live Ai -called Grok event application application when Musk announced his chat with the same name. “It was a day I will never forget,” says Shah. “I woke up and looked at my phone, and there were so many messages from friends saying” you’ve been acquired by Elon? Congratulations! “It was a full shock for me.”
Shah insists that lamb violated his trademark. But, according to North -American legislation, trademark regulations are mainly designed to protect consumers instead of companies, according to Josh Gerben, founder of Gerben IP, a law firm focused exclusively on trademarks. “The goal is to not have confusion about who is behind a product or service,” he says.
For example, the former Musk Grimes partner also set the name Grok for a Plushie Ai toy toy, but this application is very different from a software tool, reducing the probability that consumers mix them. “The details are important,” says Gerben. “What does the original Grok do and what does this new do? Do they operate in the same trade channel?”
In the case of Bizly, the answers to these questions are quite obscured. One of the requirements for registering a trademark is that owners must prove that it is used to sell goods or services in at least two states. Uspto also allows people to submit a trademark to reserve the rights on a name before a company is launched, but in fact they cannot record it until, for example, its jewelry website is completely in operation or its pizza chain expands to a neighboring state.
