Openai and Jony Ive accused of trying to “bury” start a competitor

The CEO of Ampate, who forced Openai and former Apple design head, has accused them of falling marketing materials about the 6.4 billion dollar AI project by trying to “bury” his company after discussing the potential cooperation.

IYO founder and former Google Jason Rugolo’s founder told the Financial Times that it was “intended” to launch IO, Openai’s partnership with IVE to create a new Amnesty International Device products. Both companies were previously in a deal talks with the start of the same named.

“This is the story of the corporate aggression, for large companies trying to bury smaller companies,” said Rogolo. “If we do not win the restriction, this announcement may be good.”

The brands dispute comes only one month after Openai’s disclosure of plans Obtaining the start of IVE devices In a bet on alternatives to a smartphone as a dominant device to reach artificial intelligence.

During the weekend, Openai Remove the blog and short video on the deal, after an American federal judge on Friday. Openai and Lovefrom, IVE design company, denied, i.e. violation or deliberate brand violations.

Rugolo developed IYO to the CEO of Openai Sam Altman in March, according to the FT e -mail messages.

“I would like to convince you of the idea of ​​bringing IYO to Openai and the launch of Iyo One as Openai (product) in October,” Rogolo wrote to Altman.

The two made a video call on March 26, and a follow -up offer was created on May 1 with the Vice President of the Product at Openai, the Wennder, the Executive IO, and the senior apple designers Tan Tan, according to persons familiar with the meetings.

On May 23, days after the IO Deal was announced, Rugolo was sent via Altman’s e -mail about the launch, which he said led to the feeling that he was “a little weak and exposed, similar to David and Golot.”

He asked whether Altman was “serious and optimistic” about the possible acquisition of IYO.

Altman has redirected the email to look at his ideas, who answered internally: “I don’t think there is suitability (because) their devices are very perpendicular to our device and don’t really work yet. They have offered to look at the IP but I doubt the existence of anything there. Tang has known their engineers before and we do not think we need it.”

Rugolo Ft told the Openai’s decision “it was completely blinded by: Announcement of a company that is doing a similar work exactly with the same name … they know what they are doing.”

Openai said: “This is an unfounded trademark conflict and not an issue about stolen ideas or technology. IYO directed a product in May 2025 that did not work properly or fulfilled our standards in the hope that we would get IYO. We have passed.

IYO, which was suspended from the Google’s Moonshot Laboratory in 2021, designed Amnesty International’s earphones as “IYO One”. “Voice Computers” contains audio auxiliary assistants for the conversation described in a set of applications.

In a lawsuit, it was filed this month, IYO detailed the meetings between the Rugolo, Openai team and the IVE team that leads to May.

Tan asked many team members to try the IYO device, according to email messages that were disclosed in the lawsuit. Tan, Ozaq and Evans Hanki – the former head of the Apple Design Department who joined IVE in IO – again met in May to present his product, according to the lawsuit.

“They were talking about buying our company,” Rogolo said. “They got everything, all the way to how the software stretch works. I trusted them foolishly, because I thought we were cooperating and seriously working together.”

The meetings came three years after a first round of communications. In April 2022, IYO said she met Ryan Cohen, CEO of Altman Personal Investment Fund, Lovefrom member and former founder of Pinterest Evan Sharp. Both of them have gone on to invest at that time.

In a court statement, Altman said he was not aware of Rugolo or his company in 2023 when IO was established, adding that Rugolo sent it via email “outside of Azraq” in March this year, requesting funding of $ 10 million. Altman said it was transferred to the IO team as a “lounge” and “evaluating any opportunities for cooperation.”

In the court statement, Tan said that he agreed to meet with Rogolo as a good for a friend, that IYO One demonstration failed, and that he had refused to show the company’s intellectual property, and that Rogolo “seemed desperate for money.”

Tan’s claims in the court files that Rugolo offered the sale of the company for $ 200 million, with “raising the issue of the name IO in bad faith to try to conclude a deal with his company.”

Rogolo said this statement was “100 percent liar”, but it could have arisen from a misunderstanding of the conditions of the deal.

Rogolo said that starting it was trying to collect new financing this year as he looked at a limited launch of 20,000 devices, but he said that IO’s announcement had been affected by discussions.

IO Products, Openai, Altman and IVE argue in the court files that the lawsuit is “premature”, as IO is “at least for a year to provide any goods or services” so there is no “product or context of the IO market or the market for evaluation.” The defense added that IO’s first producer “is not a device inside the ear like the plaintiff provided by the plaintiff.”

The experiment is scheduled to be determined in the case in January 2028, with a preliminary judicial order set in October this year to determine whether the prohibition of the IO’s products will continue.