OpenAI Takes Down Jony Ive’s ‘io’ References Amid Trademark Dispute

OpenAI has removed all mentions of Jony Ive’s startup “io” from its website and social media pages. The scrub follows a court order prompted by a trademark complaint from iyO, a hearing device startup that graduated from Alphabet’s X moonshot lab.

“This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name “io.” We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options,” OpenAI said in an X post on Sunday. 

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Ive’s io was founded last year by the former Apple designer to develop next-generation hardware for AI. Last month, OpenAI announced it was acquiring the startup. As of writing, while OpenAI has taken down mentions of io, CEO Sam Altman hasn’t. 

In the launch video still viewable on his X feed, Altman and Ive are seen hyping up new hardware that can make better use of AI. “I think we have the opportunity here to completely reimagine what it means to use a computer,” Altman says in the video. 

According to Bloomberg, the acquisition was to be completed in the summer following regulatory approvals and would have cost OpenAI nearly $6.5 billion. Despite the lawsuit, OpenAI has no plans to drop the acquisition. The deal will go through, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Verge. 

Once the takeover is completed, OpenAI would merge io’s team of 55 hardware engineers, software developers, and manufacturing experts with its teams in San Francisco. Together, they are expected to create a family of AI-powered devices, and the first one is already being tested. 

“The first one we’ve been working on…has just completely captured our imagination,” Ive said in the video. Altman, who has been testing the prototype at home, says: “I’ve been able to live with it, and I think it’s the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

About Jibin Joseph

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Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.

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