A federal court has barred OpenAI from using the name Cameo for a feature in Sora that lets users insert digital likenesses of themselves into generated videos. The court found that the name could confuse users with Cameo, the platform that sells personalized video messages from celebrities. OpenAI had argued that the word was descriptive, but the judge found that it suggested rather than described the feature. OpenAI had already renamed it Characters after an earlier temporary order, TechCrunch reported on February 17th.

The dispute places an old entertainment word between two kinds of performance. A cameo once meant a brief appearance by a recognizable person inside someone else's story. OpenAI used the same word for a system that manufactures the appearance without requiring the person to perform. The trademark therefore protects a commercial relationship as much as a label. Cameo sells access to a real celebrity and promises that the message comes from that person. Sora sells a controlled imitation that can place a user's face inside a scene. The court has forced the company to change the sign above the door. The synthetic performance remains available behind a new name.