OverDrive Sues OpenAI For Sora Trademark Infringement
"There exists a certain, grave risk of reputational harm to OverDrive if the public perceives an association between OverDrive and OpenAI," OverDrive lawyers argue in the suit.
You just had to see this one coming. Leading library vendor OverDrive, which owns Sora, the popular student-focused digital borrowing platform, this week filed a trademark infringement suit in federal court against Open AI, over the AI giant's decision to use the name Sora for its app that can turn text prompts and images into into videos, including so-called deepfakes.
"When naming its new app, OpenAI had a multitude of options to choose from. But OpenAI instead selected Sora—the very name that OverDrive has cultivated into a global brand for good, education, literacy, and equality of access to reading through years of dedicated stewardship and substantial investment," the complaint notes.
"There exists a certain, grave risk of reputational harm to OverDrive if the public
perceives an association between OverDrive and OpenAI," OverDrive lawyers go on to argue, asserting that OverDrive "is beloved by educators, publishers, and authors not only for its technology, but also because OverDrive respects intellectual property rights, obtains appropriate permissions/licenses from publishers and authors, and pays them to distribute their ebooks and audiobooks."
OpenAI, on the other hand, "both as a company and as to the philosophy it adopts in developing and distributing its technology products could not be more different from OverDrive," the complaint argues, detailing several of OpenAI's controversies, including "mounting scrutiny over how its AI systems interact with and impact children and teenagers."
The filing also lays out months of OverDrive's objections to Open AI lawyers over the use of its registered trademarks, and several examples of perceived and actual confusion in the marketplace, including queries and concerns from OverDrive's librarian customers, emails to OverDrive's tech support about OpenAI's product, and confused consumer reviews in app stores.
OverDrive lawyers even suggest that OpenAI may be leaning into that market confusion, pointing out that OpenAI's Sora logo is suspiciously similar to OverDrive's.
Among the remedies, OverDrive is seeking a judgment that OpenAI has “willfully infringed” their trademarks and violated several fair trade laws; an injunction barring further infringement of the Sora trademark; and that OpenAI destroy any and all items bearing the Sora trademark.
And, yes, damages. The suit asks the court to disgorge OpenAI profits from the use of Sora and pay OverDrive "three times the amount of actual damages or profits," along with attorney fees and court costs.
"As well-known as OverDrive’s Sora mark is, and as successful a company that
OverDrive is in the pre-K-12 school library market, OverDrive has only a fraction of the resources and reach of OpenAI," the complaint adds. "Due to this imbalance, OpenAI’s use of Sora...threatens to overwhelm OverDrive in the marketplace and the goodwill in Sora that OverDrive has spent years cultivating. Additionally, given OpenAI’s disregard for the intellectual property rights of others and questionable business tactics, OpenAI’s use of Sora is highly likely to tarnish OverDrive’s SORA mark."
