Today I realized I received an opposition notice to trademark applications GPT-FOR Keyboard, GPT-FOUR
I am more than happy to withdraw these applications and I already did but:
I did these applications to be able to publish an app to app store where I use openAI APIs and they should look familiar to the end users. There was an issue everytime I start to publish an app to App Store I was being rejected. That’s fine but some apps were being accepted. This is the issue.
I tried to explain this before you can see it in the attachments. Apple’s app review system is so bad. Their reviewers are not paying attention to rules or they don’t know the rules really well. When I submit ChatGPT and GPT-4 keywords in subtitle they reject me it happened at least 13 times.
I found three very popular apps, they use ChatGPT and GPT-4 keywords (on their subtitle for months, 3-4 months I guess)
I also provided url to complain to Apple about it. I didn’t get any reply back from OpenAI about it. I am happy to withdraw the trademark applications that’s fine but please prepare a good playing field for app developers. App development agencies with more resources they do a workaround on Apple they select non-US as primary language and deploy their apps through there. Their subtitle and the whole description has ChatGPT and GPT-4. Your trademark is being used there.
I chose this path to get a basis on the approach and let the whole OpenAI know what’s happening from an App developer point of view. Big companies or people with more access to resources gain a clear advantage here. This is not in line with OpenAI’s values and policies but this is what exactly happens.
If we are going to close widened income gap we need to make sure we apply the same rules/approaches to everyone. Otherwise this is discrimination. I know discrimination is not in line with OpenAI policies and values.
As you can see I tried to raise this issue with legal team before. The only action I saw is an action against my trademarks but nothing happened to the apps that use ChatGPT and GPT-4 keywords on their apps’ subtitle.
When I tried to do the same I’ve got rejected 13 times. I think there had to be a separation on trademarks openAI use. ChatGPT should be a trademark I agree. but as a customer if I Can’t mention GPT4 API on my app this is an issue. If some developers can use this is discrimination.
Do you think that approved apps follow them? Even if it’s a yes Apple doesn’t give equal care to all developers. The issue originated from GPT GPT-4 was trademarked. But actually it shouldn’t be. ChatGPT is a product yes it should be trademarked but not API names.
These are legal arguments that are not suitable for a Developer forum, if you have an issue with branding, trademarks and other topics related to corporate legal you should take it up with the relevant department.
Please note that OpenAI currently has a total staff of around 375 people and over 150 million users and several million developers, all of whom are asking for personal attention, these things will take time to deal with. It seems you have already reached out to legal, and that is all that can be done at this stage.
I wish you well and please feel free to enquire about any technical issue you may have, but there is nobody here who can answer your legal questions on behalf of OpenAI.
Thank you for your efforts to assist. Although these issues might appear personal, they are not - they are about culture. Culture is what defines a community. If we are comfortable using workarounds to get ChatGPT and GPT-4 keywords accepted in the subtitle while publishing to app store, then that is a discussion worth having. I aim to gain insight into this from the community and from other developers. Hence, I kindly request any developers observing this to share their thoughts on this matter. This isn’t an attempt to resolve a legal case; that issue has already been addressed, as I previously noted.
That’s simply not allowable based on the brand guidelines.
You can use,
Powered by GPT-4
Or,
Powered by ChatGPT API
Or,
Powered by OpenAI
Per the brand guidelines.
They probably wouldn’t care too much about your custom branding but they want and need these terms to grow to mean specific things which is why the brand guidelines exist.
They don’t want 100 different variations all saying slightly different things making it impossible for consumers to know what is meant by each branding.
Stick to what is allowed and you shouldn’t have an issue.
Apple references it back to OpenAI for written consent and OpenAI doesn’t provide it. I learned from Apple reviewer from USA that OpenAI strictly gave a guideline to them and GPT-4 and ChatGPT keywords are not allowed.
What happens is developers with more resources do illegal workarounds to overcome this issue. They submit the app from another country to make GPT keywords pass. They do several submissions.
Check GitHub to make sure your names aren’t already released … many names containing “GPT” are already taken … I’m not familiar with the apple store policies but you can license and release a product directly from GitHub … you can’t copywrite or trademark it from there but it is given an official release (I program mostly for Google products specifically alternative operating systems for Android so I don’t usually bother with store acceptance policy)
I apologize for any misunderstanding, sir. I understand that you may not be familiar with my app store submission language and circumstances. Could you kindly consider setting aside any preconceived notions about me and my statements? I would greatly appreciate it if you could offer your assistance, as the topic at hand does not pertain to my language or identity, which are already determined by GPT-4.