{"id":223503,"date":"2026-02-18T06:40:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/u-s-court-bars-openai-from-using-cameo-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T06:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:40:59","slug":"u-s-court-bars-openai-from-using-cameo-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/u-s-court-bars-openai-from-using-cameo-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. court bars OpenAI from using &#8216;Cameo&#8217; | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A federal district court in Northern California ruled in favor of Cameo, a platform that allows users to get personalized video messages from celebrities, and ordered OpenAI to stop using \u201cCameo\u201d in its products and features.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OpenAI was using the \u201cCameo\u201d name for its AI-powered video generation app Sora 2. Users could use that feature to insert digital likenesses of themselves into AI-generated videos. In a ruling filed Saturday, the court said the name was similar enough to cause user confusion, and rejected OpenAI\u2019s argument that \u201cCameo\u201d was merely descriptive, finding that \u201cit suggests rather than describes the feature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In November, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/11\/24\/openai-learned-the-hard-way-that-cameo-trademarked-the-word-cameo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the court granted a temporary restraining order to Cameo<\/a> and stopped OpenAI from using the word. The AI company then <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/help.openai.com\/en\/articles\/12435986-generating-content-with-characters\" target=\"_blank\">renamed the feature to \u201cCharacters\u201d<\/a> after that order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have spent nearly a decade building a brand that stands for talent-friendly interactions and genuine connection, and we like to say that \u2018every Cameo is a commercial for the next one.\u201d Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis ruling is a critical victory not just for our company, but for the integrity of our marketplace and the thousands of creators who trust the Cameo name. We will continue to vigorously defend our intellectual property against any platform that attempts to trade on the goodwill and recognition we have worked so hard to establish,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe disagree with the complaint\u2019s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word \u2018cameo,\u2019 and we look forward to continuing to make our case,\u201d an OpenAI spokesperson told <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/reuters.com\/legal\/litigation\/openai-blocked-using-cameo-name-amid-trademark-lawsuit-2026-02-17\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a> in response to the ruling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OpenAI has been involved in several intellectual property cases in recent months. Earlier this month, the company ditched \u201cIO\u201d branding around its upcoming hardware products, according to court documents obtained by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/openai-drops-io-branding-hardware-devices\/\" target=\"_blank\">WIRED<\/a>. In November, digital library app OverDrive sued OpenAI <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/litigation\/openai-sued-infringing-library-app-makers-sora-trademark-2025-11-20\/\" target=\"_blank\">over its use of \u201cSora\u201d<\/a> for its video generation app. The company is also in legal disputes with <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/11\/03\/studio-ghibli-and-other-japanese-publishers-want-openai-to-stop-training-on-their-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">various artists, creatives, and media groups<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/11\/12\/court-rules-that-openai-violated-german-copyright-law-ordered-it-to-pay-damages\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">various geographies<\/a> over copyright violations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-techcrunch-inline-cta\">\n<div class=\"inline-cta__wrapper\">\n<p>Techcrunch event<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-cta__content\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__location\">Boston, MA<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__separator\">|<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__date\">June 23, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/17\/u-s-court-bars-openai-from-using-cameo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal district court in Northern California ruled in favor of Cameo, a platform that allows users to get personalized video messages from celebrities, and ordered OpenAI to stop using \u201cCameo\u201d in its products and features. OpenAI was using the \u201cCameo\u201d name for its AI-powered video generation app Sora 2. Users could use that feature [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-223503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}