A federal district court in Northern California ordered OpenAI to stop using the name “Cameo” in its products and features, ruling in favor of Cameo, a company that allows users to get personalized video messages from celebrities.
OpenAI and its AI-powered video generation app, Sora 2, were using the “Cameo” title for a feature that allows users to insert digital likenesses of themselves into AI-generated videos. The court said in a ruling filed Saturday that the name was similar enough to cause user confusion. It rejected OpenAI’s argument that “Cameo” was merely descriptive, finding that “it suggests rather than describes the feature.”
OpenAI had renamed the feature to “Characters,” after the court granted Cameo a temporary restraining order that prevented the AI company from using its name.
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“We have spent nearly a decade building a brand that stands for talent-friendly interactions and genuine connection, and we like to say that every Cameo is a commercial for the next one,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis said in a statement.
“This ruling is a critical victory not just for our company, but for the integrity of our marketplace and the thousands of creators who trust the Cameo name. We will continue to vigorously defend our intellectual property against any platform that attempts to trade on the goodwill and recognition we have worked so hard to establish,” he noted.
“We disagree with the complaint’s assertion that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo,’ and we look forward to continuing to make our case,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters after the ruling.
The firm Cameo with the namesake app, founded in 2017, allows users to hire celebrities to appear in short, personalized videos. OpenAI’s Sora, which launched as a standalone app in September 2025, lets users create and share AI-generated videos.
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Cameo said OpenAI chose the name “Cameo” for its Sora user avatars “in blatant disregard for the obvious confusion it would create.” Cameo also said that Sora allows users to create short videos with celebrity “Cameos” including entrepreneur Mark Cuban and boxer and influencer Jake Paul, putting it in direct competition with Cameo’s platform.
U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee agreed with Cameo that OpenAI’s use of its name would likely create market confusion and cause Cameo irreparable harm without an injunction.
OpenAI had been in several such intellectual property disputes recently. Earlier this month, the company had to get rid of “IO” branding around its upcoming hardware products, according to court documents obtained by WIRED. In November 2025, digital library app OverDrive sued OpenAI over its use of “Sora” for its video generation app. OpenAI is also in dispute with several artists, creatives, and media groups over copyright issues.