OpenAI, the US company behind ChatGPT, has lost its legal challenge against the refusal to register the trademark "OPENAI" at the European Union's General Court.

The Luxembourg-based court ruled that, for certain software and information technology goods and services, the term is purely descriptive and therefore lacks the distinctiveness required for trademark protection. The ruling can still be appealed to the European Court of Justice.

The court's judgment upheld a decision by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The office had partially rejected OpenAI's application for trademark registration, for example in relation to software and cloud computing services.

The EUIPO found that the word "open" would be understood by the relevant public as meaning freely accessible, while the combination with "AI" (artificial intelligence) would be interpreted as referring to products based on openly accessible artificial intelligence.

OpenAI had argued that the word "open" has multiple possible meanings and that "OPENAI" is a coined term without a fixed meaning. The company also cited comparable trademark registrations previously granted by the EUIPO and registrations in more than 30 other countries, including the United Kingdom and Singapore.

The court rejected these arguments. It ruled that the combination of words was not an unusual linguistic combination in English. Furthermore, registrations in other jurisdictions were not binding under EU trademark law.