Groq Sends Elon’s ‘Grok’ A Cease & Desist, Though A Funny One
One of things we enjoy here at Techdirt is when even those with legitimate gripes about trademark law take a bemused view about the whole thing, rather than immediately jumping to angry and overly aggressive threats. No one likes a trademark bully, even when the trademark holder might have a legitimate claim.
A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Elon Musk probably should have checked with trademark lawyers (or just done a basic internet search) before naming his xAI large language model Grok" because there was already a well-known AI chip company in the space named Groq. Groq seems mildly annoyed at the confusion this is causing (and literally yesterday when I mentioned testing something on Groq's AI system someone asked me why I was using Elon's AI...), but is mostly taking it in good strides.
Initially, Groq's CEO, Jonathan Ross (who was the guest on this week's Techdirt podcast, which was entertaining) used his own AI tools to suggest a new name for Elon's LLM. The solution they came up with was Slartibartfast, which (unlike Grok") is actually from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which Elon keeps insisting is what his AI is trained to be like.
Then Ross used the situation to highlight just how much faster AI running on Groq's chips are, compared to using the old, tired, slow way that Elon's appears to be using:
Now, Ross has taken it up a notch with a clearer cease and desist, though still keeping it amusing.
Did you know that when you announced the new xAI chatbot, you used our name? Your chatbot is called Grok and our company is called Groq, so you can see how this might create confusion among people. Groq (us) sounds a lot like (identical) to Grok (you), and the difference of one consonant (q, k) only matters to scrabblers and spell checkers. Plus, we own the trademark.
We can see why you might want to adopt our name. You like fast things (rockets, hyperloops, one-letter company names) and our product, the Groq LPU
Inference Engine, is the fastest way to run large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI applications. However, we must ask you to please choose another name, and fast.
I stand by my recommendation to name itSlartibartfast. It's both on message with your idea of a sarcastic bot inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and sounds sufficiently distinct from any other AI company or product (which is why I wouldn't recommend calling it Giggle or OpenXi). Win-win! But, your call.
In making this request, we're thinking about you as much as us. It must be annoying having all those people hitting you up on X, asking how the Groq LPU Inference Engine is able to deliver 10X better performance and precision at scale? Or how it is 10X more energy efficient and 10X more cost-effective? That's plenty of Xs, even for you, especially when it's not your Groq.
I get it. It was annoying when my great Aunt asked me about my new snarky chatbot over Thanksgiving dinner, but I passed her the mashed potatoes anyway.
#GroqOn
Of course, Elon has (so far) ignored all of this, and there's a decent chance he'll continue to do so. But I'd like to no longer need to explain every time I talk about Groq (which is doing some pretty cool stuff) that I'm not using Elon's glitchy tech, so hopefully Elon gets around to actually changing the name.
As we've explained for years, of the three customary fields often linked together under the terrible and misleading term intellectual property," trademark is the most defensible, though only for its original intended purpose: to avoid consumer confusion. As a consumer protection tool that accurately designates the origin of a product, trademark serves a useful process (it's only when it's being used for bullying/censorship that gets us upset). But here, Groq appears to have a very clear legitimate claim. The likelihood of confusion is extremely clear (I keep experiencing it personally!).
But, I guess it's up to Elon if he's actually going to change the name. He could ask Grok, but I'm guessing the responses might come a little too slowly.