Clearpath Robotics, a Canadian maker of autonomous robots, that includes a division of self-driving warehouse robots named Otto.
Clearpath is suing Uberโs Otto, the full name of which is Ottomotto, for infringing on its โOttoโ trademark.
According to the complaint submitted to US District Court for Northern California on Aug. 24, Clearpath is worried that Ottoโs use of the โOttoโ brand โis likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception as the affiliation, connection or association of Defendant with Plaintiff.โ Per the filing, it sounds like thatโs already happened:
Due to the highly similar nature of the marks, Clearpath has already received misdirected inquiries from
the press, including a contact requesting that someone from Clearpath participate on Sirius XMโs trucking channel to discuss โOtto self-driving trucks,โ as a result of a โrecent articleโ;
potential customers have communicated interest in outfitting a tractor trailer with โOTTO,โ and
Clearpathโs current customers, referencing the May 2016 Wired story on Defendantโs Otto, inquired if the trucking system is related to products offered by Clearpath. Since the announcement of the impending acquisition of Defendant by non-party Uber, Clearpath has also received numerous additional inquiries evidencing actual confusion.
Clearpath filed a Canadian trademark application for โOttoโ in September 2015. It filed one with the US Patent and Trademark Office this February. Ottomoto filed a trademark application for โOttoโ with the USPTO roughly one month later, on March 6, 2016.
An attorney for Clearpath declined to comment beyond the court filings. Uber and Otto also declined to comment. Otto has yet to formally respond to Clearpathโs complaint, according to a database of electronic court records.
