AI Startup Perplexity Sued For Alleged Trademark Infringement

Perplexity, the venture-backed startup structure AI-powered search items, has actually been taken legal action against in federal court for allegedly violating another company’s hallmark.

In a grievance filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, attorneys representing a company called Perplexity Solved Solutions implicate Perplexity of infringing on its trademark rights by using the brand “Perplexity.”

Perplexity Solved Solutions, a Plano, Texas-based company founded in 2017, used to sign up the Perplexity trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in October 2021, according to the problem.

Perplexity Solved Solutions mainly sells HR and office cooperation software application, including a merged dashboard for HR analytics and a videoconferencing tool called Perplexity Meet. The company secured a hallmark registration by November 2022 and started promoting products on its website, perplexityonline.com, a domain that Perplexity Solved Solutions had signed up in 2021.

Perplexity and counsel for Perplexity Solved Solutions did not react as of press time. TechCrunch will update the short article if either celebration remarks.

The Texas business alleges that AI start-up Perplexity started infringing on its trademark “in or around” August 2022 to promote its AI-powered search engine. The month prior – July 2022 – Perplexity had actually registered the domain perplexity.ai, which the grievance also alleges is infringement.

“The [Perplexity] site currently located at the infringing domain plainly includes the Perplexity [trademark],” the complaint checks out,” [and] the infringing items and services are extremely similar to those provided by Perplexity [Solved Solutions] and appeal to a comparable customer base. For example, Perplexity [Solved Solutions’] ‘Perplexity Meet’ and offender’s ‘Perplexity Spaces’ both are software application platforms that help with interaction and collaboration among colleagues in companies and other organizations.”

Perplexity Spaces, which the San Francisco-based AI start-up introduced for business customers in October, are hubs with a personalized AI assistant and connectors to third-party platforms, apps, and file systems.

The problem alleges that Perplexity has “saturated the marketplace” with its infringing branding, including marketing throughout its numerous social networks accounts. The AI start-up declined to purchase the Perplexity hallmark in September 2023 when provided, per the problem, and instead opted to apply for its own trademark with the USPTO, which is still pending.

According to the complaint, Perplexity didn’t comply with a stop and desist letter from Perplexity Solved Solutions’ counsel, and it hasn’t withdrawn its pending trademark 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 plant confusion.

“In reality, upon info and belief, customers already have been confused,” the grievance reads. “For instance, on numerous events, social networks users have ‘tagged’ Perplexity in their posts about defendant’s infringing items and services.”

The problem declares that Perplexity’s conduct breaks laws, including the Lanham Act – the U.S. federal law that manages trademarks and unreasonable competitors. Among other kinds of legal relief, Perplexity Solved Solutions is looking for to bar Perplexity from using its trademark, as well as the hallmark “Perplexity AI,” pay damages, and transfer ownership of any domains that consist of Perplexity branding.

It’s the most current courtroom headache for Perplexity, which is presently battling a claim filed by News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post over what the complainants refer to as a “content kleptocracy.” Many other news websites have revealed issues that Perplexity closely reproduces their content – just last October, The New york city Times sent out the startup a cease and desist letter.

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