Google Hit with Allegations of Trademark Infringement over Gemini ChatBot

Gemini Data, Inc., an AI software company, has sued Google, LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for trademark infringement, alleging that the rebranding of Google’s AI chatbot from BARD to GEMINI represents a “calculated decision to bulldoze over Gemini Data’s exclusive rights without hesitation.”

In February 2024, Google announced it would be re-branding BARD to GEMINI and attempted to register the trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The application was refused due to a likelihood of confusion with Gemini Data’s mark, after which the complaint alleges that Google attempted to acquire rights to the GEMINI brand via an anonymous entity. Despite the USPTO’s refusal and Gemini Data’s rejection of the offer to sell its brand rights, Google continued to use the GEMINI mark, says the complaint.

It adds that the company has used the GEMINI marks in commerce since 2011 and accuses Google of willful intent to cause confusion.

Google has reportedly filed for a three-month extension before the USPTO’s refusal of its application becomes final.

In a footnote to the complaint, Gemini Data claims that when asked whether Google’s GEMINI knows it is infringing the Gemini Data trademark, it says yes. “In an almost laughable example of Google’s hubris, if you ask Google’s Gemini application if it is aware that it is infringing upon the trademark of Gemini Data Inc., it responds ‘Yes’ and that ‘[i]t’s a developing situation,’” says the footnote.

Exhibit A to complaint

“Assuming a small company like Gemini Data would not be in a position to challenge a corporate giant wielding overwhelming power, Google continues to knowingly and willfully infringe on Gemini Data’s rights, seemingly without remorse,” the complaint adds.

Gemini Data is suing Google for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false designation of origin and is seeking an injunction and damages.

Google is fielding lawsuits on all IP fronts recently. On September 10, the Federal Circuit denied its request for rehearing and rehearing en banc for reconsideration of the court’s April decision affirming an International Trade Commission (ITC) final determination that said Google infringed five of Sonos, Inc.’s patents; on September 9, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Google made opening statements in a blockbuster antitrust case against Google that accuses it of holding a monopoly on technology that matches advertisers to publishers of online content; in August, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled  that “Google is a monopolist” and that the search engine has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act; and in June, several major educational publishing companies sued Google in a New York district court alleging contributory and vicarious copyright infringement, trademark infringement and violations of New York’s General Business Law for facilitating infringement by promoting pirate sites that sell heavily discounted versions of educational textbooks.

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