AI Startup Perplexity Sued For Alleged Trademark Infringement

Perplexity, the venture-backed start-up building AI-powered search items, has actually been sued in federal court for supposedly breaking another company’s hallmark.

In a complaint 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 hallmark rights by utilizing the brand “Perplexity.”

Perplexity Solved Solutions, a Plano, Texas-based firm founded in 2017, applied 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 primarily sells HR and work environment collaboration software application, consisting of an unified 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 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 upgrade the post if either party remarks.

The Texas business alleges 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 registered the domain perplexity.ai, which the grievance also declares is violation.

“The [Perplexity] website currently located at the infringing domain name plainly features the Perplexity [trademark],” the complaint reads,” [and] the infringing items and services are highly similar to those offered by Perplexity [Solved Solutions] and attract a similar consumer base. For instance, Perplexity [Solved Solutions’] ‘Perplexity Meet’ and accused’s ‘Perplexity Spaces’ both are software application platforms that facilitate communication and cooperation among colleagues in companies and other organizations.”

Perplexity Spaces, which the San Francisco-based AI startup released for business clients in October, are hubs with a customizable AI assistant and adapters to third-party platforms, apps, and file systems.

The problem declares that Perplexity has actually “saturated the marketplace” with its infringing branding, including marketing across its various social media accounts. The AI start-up decreased to acquire the Perplexity trademark in September 2023 when provided, per the grievance, and instead opted to declare its own trademark with the USPTO, which is still pending.

According to the grievance, Perplexity didn’t abide by a cease and desist letter from Perplexity Solved Solutions’ counsel, and it hasn’t withdrawn its pending trademark 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 trademark is most likely to plant confusion.

“In reality, upon details and belief, customers currently have actually been confused,” the problem reads. “For instance, on numerous celebrations, social networks users have actually ‘tagged’ Perplexity in their posts about accused’s infringing goods and services.”

The problem alleges that Perplexity’s conduct breaks laws, including the Lanham Act – the U.S. federal law that regulates trademarks and unreasonable competition. Among other kinds of legal relief, Perplexity Solved Solutions is looking for to bar Perplexity from utilizing its trademark, along with the hallmark “Perplexity AI,” pay damages, and transfer ownership of any domains that include Perplexity branding.

It’s the most recent courtroom headache for Perplexity, which is a suit filed by News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post over what the plaintiffs refer to as a “content kleptocracy.” Many other news sites have expressed issues that Perplexity closely replicates their material – just last October, The New york city Times sent the start-up a stop and desist letter.

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