The founder of the start -up claims that Elon Musk steals the name “Grock”

XAI of Elon Musk is facing potential trademark Above the name of his chatbot, Grock. The company’s trademark application at the US Patent and Trademark Office has been suspended after the agency claims that the name can be confused with that of two other companies, AI Chipmaker GroQ and GroCStream Software Provider. Now a third technological startup, called Bizly, claims to have Grok rights.

This is not the first time Musk has chosen a name for one of its products, which other companies say they have first saved a brand. Last month Musk Social Media Platform settled case brought by establishments by a marketing company that claims to have exclusive rights to the name X.

Bizly and XAI seem to have arrived in the name Grok independently. Bizly founder Ron Shah says he invented during a brain attack session with a colleague who uses the word as a verb. (The phrase “up to Grock” is often used in technological circles to mean “to understand.”) “I was like, that’s exactly the name,” says Wired Shah. “We were excited, high-five, that was the name!”

Musk has said He called his chatbot after a term used in the 1961 science fiction novel. A stranger in a strange land, According to Times of India. Author Robert A. Heinlein imagined “Grock” as a word in a Martian Lexicon, which also meant “to understand.”

Shah says he applied for a trademark name Grock in 2021. Two years later, he was in the midst of launching a live evening app name called Grok when Musk declared his chatbot by the same name. “It was a day that I will never forget,” says Shah. “I woke up and looked at my phone, and there were so many messages from friends who said,” Did you acquire an elon? Congratulations! “It was a complete shock to me. “

Chess insists that XAI has broken its trademark. But under US law, trademark provisions are mainly intended to protect consumers, not companies, says Josh Gerben, founder of Gerben IP, a law focus, focused exclusively on trademarks. “The goal is to have no confusion about who is behind a product or service,” he says.

For example, the former partner of Musk Grimes also a trademark The name Grok for Plushie AI toy, but this application is very different from the software tool, reducing the likelihood of users to mix them. “Details matter,” Gerben says. “What does the original Grok do and what does this new do? Does it work in the same channel of trade?”

In the case of Bizly, the answers to these questions are quite cloudy. One of the requirements for registering a trademark is that owners It must be demonstrated to be used to sell goods or services in at least two countriesS USPTO also allows people to submit a trademark to reserve a name rights before starting a business, but they can’t really register it until, say, their jewelry website does not work completely or their pizza pizza chain has expanded to a neighboring country.