Sam Altman takes his ‘io’ trademark battle public

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has put a spotlight on private conversations leading up to a rival company suing OpenAI over its upcoming device, io. On Tuesday, Altman posted screenshots of emails on X showing messages between him and Jason Rugolo, the founder of the Iyo hearing device startup that’s suing OpenAI. The emails show a mostly friendly exchange where Rugolo asks Altman for his support as Altman discloses a competing device.

“I’d love the opportunity to pitch you to invest $10MM in my AI-meets-audio hardware company, iyO,” Rugolo wrote in a March 4th message. “We’re launching the best possible hardware interface to interact with AI-agents, after having obsessively focused on this problem since 2018.”

Altman declined the offer because he was “working on something competitive.” Then, Rugolo followed up by asking whether OpenAI would like to work with him, to which Altman replied he’d have to ask former Apple designer Jony Ive, who he said was “driving” the launch. OpenAI purchased Ive’s AI hardware company for almost $6.5 billion last month.

The next emails occurred in May, with Rugolo highlighting some of the fixes Iyo made for some of the “fails” that occurred during a demo shown to the OpenAI team. On May 23rd, days after OpenAI announced its purchase of io — a name similar to Rugolo’s startup — Rugolo sent Altman another email. “I’m getting blown up on the names situation,” Rugolo said. “I wanted to level with you here, I’m feeling a little vulnerable and exposed, david and goliath style. i just wanted to hear from you directly, are you serious and optimistic about potentially bringing us in?”

In a May 23rd email, Peter Welinder, OpenAI’s VP of product, told Altman that he doesn’t “think there’s a fit,” adding that “Their device [Iyo’s] is very orthogonal to ours and doesn’t really work yet.” 

On June 22nd, OpenAI suddenly scrubbed the “io” branding from its website, later revealing that it was forced to make the change due to a temporary restraining order granted as part of Iyo’s trademark lawsuit, which was filed on June 9th. OpenAI’s hardware team testified that the io’s hardware isn’t “an in-ear device, nor a wearable.”

In the lawsuit, Iyo alleges OpenAI knew about the startup and its technology before launching io, citing meetings with Altman’s investment firm and Ive’s LoveFrom design company in 2022. Iyo also claims it shared information about its upcoming device when trying to recruit former Apple designer Evans Hankey, who went on to co-found io.

“Jason rugolo had been hoping we would invest in or acquire his company iyo and was quite persistent in his efforts,” Altman wrote in his post on X. “We passed and were clear along the way. now he is suing openai over the name. this is silly, disappointing and wrong.” 

Altman’s strategy of litigating in the court of public opinion echoes OpenAI’s approach to a lawsuit with Elon Musk, which the company has fought partly by dropping email exchanges supporting its side of the story. Musk has made similar moves in court documents.

Rugolo responded to Altman’s post on X, saying that he didn’t want to “fight” in public. “Honestly just think it’s super bad form for someone like you to be coming after me like this,” Rugolo posted. “I’m looking forward to competing with you fairly on product; you just can’t use our name. In another reply, Rugolo expanded on his relationship with Altman prior to the 2025 emails.

“When an investor you pitched everything to, especially such a powerful one, tells you they are now doing something competitive… it’s just a terrible feeling,” Rugolo wrote. “the moment he said he had decided to do something competitive, i should have immediately gotten wise… i got played pretty hard, gave them everything.”

Though OpenAI currently can’t show off the “io” branding, the company has said that its deal with Ive is still happening. OpenAI has asked the court to dismiss the case, calling Iyo’s argument “unfounded” and “premature.”