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AI Startup Perplexity Sued For Alleged Trademark Infringement

Perplexity, the venture-backed startup structure AI-powered search products, has been taken legal action against in federal court for allegedly breaking another business’s trademark.

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

Perplexity Solved Solutions, a Plano, Texas-based firm founded 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 primarily and workplace cooperation software application, including a merged dashboard for HR analytics and a videoconferencing tool called Perplexity Meet. The business secured a hallmark registration by November 2022 and started promoting items on its site, perplexityonline.com, a domain that Perplexity Solved Solutions had actually registered in 2021.

Perplexity and counsel for Perplexity Solved Solutions did not respond as of press time. TechCrunch will update the short article if either party comments.

The Texas business declares that AI startup Perplexity began infringing on its hallmark “in or around” August 2022 to promote its AI-powered online search engine. The month prior – July 2022 – Perplexity had actually signed up the domain perplexity.ai, which the problem also alleges is infringement.

“The [Perplexity] site presently located at the infringing domain name prominently includes the Perplexity [hallmark],” the complaint checks out,” [and] the infringing items and services are highly similar to those used by Perplexity [Solved Solutions] and appeal to a comparable client base. For instance, Perplexity [Solved Solutions’] ‘Perplexity Meet’ and offender’s ‘Perplexity Spaces’ both are software platforms that facilitate communication and collaboration among associates in services and other organizations.”

Perplexity Spaces, which the San Francisco-based AI start-up launched for business consumers in October, are centers with a personalized AI assistant and ports to third-party platforms, apps, and file systems.

The grievance alleges that Perplexity has “saturated the market” with its infringing branding, consisting of marketing throughout its numerous social media accounts. The AI startup declined to buy the Perplexity hallmark in September 2023 when offered, per the grievance, and instead chose to submit for its own trademark with the USPTO, which is still pending.

According to the grievance, Perplexity didn’t adhere to a stop and desist letter from Perplexity Solved Solutions’ counsel, and it hasn’t withdrawn its pending hallmark application – in spite 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 hallmark is most likely to sow confusion.

“In fact, upon info and belief, consumers currently have actually been confused,” the grievance checks out. “For instance, on numerous occasions, social networks users have ‘tagged’ Perplexity in their posts about accused’s infringing products and services.”

The grievance declares that Perplexity’s conduct breaches laws, including the Lanham Act – the U.S. federal law that regulates hallmarks and unjust competition. To name a few kinds of legal relief, Perplexity Solved Solutions is seeking to bar Perplexity from using its trademark, as well as the hallmark “Perplexity AI,” pay damages, and transfer ownership of any domains that include Perplexity branding.

It’s the newest courtroom headache for Perplexity, which is currently fighting a suit filed by News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post over what the plaintiffs describe as a “content kleptocracy.” Many other news websites have actually expressed issues that Perplexity carefully duplicates their content – simply last October, The New york city Times sent the startup a stop and desist letter.

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