OverDrive has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, charging the artificial intelligence (AI) company with trademark infringement, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices over the use of the Sora name and logo for its AI video-generating app. OverDrive’s Sora, which launched in 2018, provides access to ebooks and audiobooks to students preK–12.

“OverDrive brings this lawsuit to protect consumers, especially children, and OverDrive’s goodwill in the SORA trademark,” the filing reads. “If OpenAI’s Sora app remains available, increasing instances of confusion among students, teachers, and librarians are not only likely but inevitable. OverDrive seeks both injunctive and monetary relief to address and prevent those ongoing and future instances of confusion and to compensate it for the harm it has suffered and continues to suffer as a result of OpenAI’s unlawful conduct and the confusion it has already created.”

An OpenAI spokesperson told SLJ, “We disagree with the claims being made.”

OverDrive’s suit asks the court to “preliminarily and permanently enjoin OpenAI, their agents, employees, attorneys and all persons in active concert or participation with them, from directly or indirectly using the SORA trademark or any other mark, trade name, word or name similar to the SORA trademark that is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or to deceive, including without limitation by further operating any business under Sora."

For OverDrive and its president and CEO Steve Potash, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in October was the last straw in an ongoing issue. After lawyers for both companies had been in conversation for months about OpenAI’s use of the Sora name for its AI text-to-video generator, according to Potash, the “good faith” attempts could no longer continue.

“Why now? Because after prolonged efforts to arrive at any meaningful constructive path for resolution, it’s reached an impasse,” Potash said. “Why now? As you can imagine, our team were proudly exhibiting our Sora products at the AASL [conference] recently, and it was alarming how many librarians—and not only librarians, [but] educators, teachers, parents, media outlets—who are talking about the confusion and the potential reasons it’s stopping, in some cases, schools from promoting and continuing to adopt access for the kids to the books that they need.”

OpenAI’s use of the Sora name includes an icon that OverDrive alleges is “confusingly similar” in color palette and “visual identity.”

The lawsuit, filed in Ohio federal court, contains examples of customer confusion and the alleged harm being done to OverDrive’s business and brand.

“We have a very strong interest in them stopping this egregious breach of our intellectual property,” said Potash. "We are tracking daily occurrences of this confusion causing harm to our brand and harm to the reputation of our role as a trusted platform that protects the interests of the district, administrators, and librarians responsible for the content they provide access to for all students."

In communication cited in the filing, an OverDrive Sora customer wrote, “I’m deeply upset and concerned that Open AI has a Sora app as well—theirs is for ‘creating’ videos and graphics. You are not affiliated with that, correct? Does Overdrive plan to respond to this use of the Sora name? It is confusing for educators, students, and families.”

The suit also contains examples of negative Google Player reviews from users who wanted the AI generator app and instead ended up on the children’s reading platform.