The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted iyO Inc. a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, Sam Altman, Sir Jony Ive, and io Products.
The ruling, where the Court found that iyO was likely to succeed on the merits of its trademark claim, officially bars the defendants from using the “io” name for their hardware while iyO’s federal lawsuit proceeds.
The ruling caps a year of escalating legal action. On March 13, 2026, iyO amended its federal complaint to include trade secret theft claims against the defendants and Tang Yew Tan — former Apple vice president president of Product Design, co-founder of io Products, and current Chief Hardware Officer at OpenAI.
The amended complaint outlines a highly coordinated timeline of alleged misappropriation:
- May 2024: Just 11 days after iyO’s viral TED talk was published, Tan pre-ordered the iyO One. Nine days later, he contacted iyO’s Design and Manufacturing Lead, Dan Sargent, to schedule a dinner meeting for early June.
- June 2024: Forensic analysis of Sargent’s company laptop revealed that in the days leading up to the dinner with Tan, Sargent downloaded 33 highly secret files, accessed dormant intellectual property folders, and exported 17 CAD files into cross-platform formats unused by iyO. These files were renamed with obfuscated strings (e.g., “grgrgege.x_t”) and exported outside of business hours. Sargent has since admitted to bringing iyO prototypes to show Tan.
- May 2025: Barely 11 months after the dinner, OpenAI announced a $6.5 billion acquisition of io Products, a company built on what iyO alleges is its proprietary technology.
Following the acquisition announcement, iyO CEO Jason Rugolo confronted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who allegedly refused to cease use of the “io” name and threatened to sue Rugolo for using iyO’s own federally registered trademark.
Statement from iyO Leadership
“Sam, Jony, and Tang investigated us,” said Jason Rugolo, founder and CEO of iyO. “Then targeted us opportunistically, trying to eliminate us with a fancy $6.5 billion press release during our fundraise using a copy of our name. This week, a federal judge said: not so fast.”
iyO’s lawsuit asserts nine causes of action, including trade secret misappropriation, trademark infringement, intentional interference, and unfair competition. The company is seeking injunctive relief, compensatory and exemplary damages, disgorgement of profits, and a constructive trust over any portion of the $6.5 billion acquisition value attributable to the alleged stolen intellectual property and brand infringement.
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