AI Startup Perplexity Sued For Alleged Trademark Infringement

Perplexity, the venture-backed start-up building AI-powered search products, has been sued in federal court for apparently breaking another company’s trademark.

In a complaint submitted Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, attorneys representing a company called Perplexity Solved Solutions accuse Perplexity of infringing on its trademark rights by utilizing the brand name “Perplexity.”

Perplexity Solved Solutions, a Plano, Texas-based firm established in 2017, applied to sign up the Perplexity trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in October 2021, according to the grievance.

Perplexity Solved Solutions primarily offers HR and office collaboration software, including a combined control panel for HR analytics and a videoconferencing tool called Perplexity Meet. The business protected a hallmark registration by November 2022 and began promoting items 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 upgrade the short article if either celebration .

The Texas company declares that AI start-up 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 registered the domain perplexity.ai, which the complaint likewise alleges is violation.

“The [Perplexity] site presently located at the infringing domain plainly includes the Perplexity [hallmark],” the grievance checks out,” [and] the infringing items and services are highly similar to those used by Perplexity [Solved Solutions] and attract a comparable customer base. For example, Perplexity [Solved Solutions’] ‘Perplexity Meet’ and defendant’s ‘Perplexity Spaces’ both are software application platforms that facilitate communication and collaboration amongst associates in companies and other companies.”

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

The problem alleges that Perplexity has “filled the marketplace” with its infringing branding, consisting of marketing throughout its various social networks accounts. The AI startup decreased to purchase the Perplexity hallmark in September 2023 when provided, per the problem, and rather chose to apply for its own trademark with the USPTO, which is still pending.

According to the problem, 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 state that Perplexity’s use of its trademark is most likely to plant confusion.

“In reality, upon information and belief, consumers currently have been puzzled,” the problem reads. “For instance, on many occasions, social networks users have actually ‘tagged’ Perplexity in their posts about defendant’s infringing goods and services.”

The grievance declares that Perplexity’s conduct breaks laws, including the Lanham Act – the U.S. federal law that regulates trademarks and unjust competition. To name a few kinds of legal relief, Perplexity Solved Solutions is seeking to bar Perplexity from utilizing its trademark, as well as 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 currently fighting 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 actually expressed concerns that Perplexity carefully replicates their content – just last October, The New york city Times sent out the startup a stop and desist letter.

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