Autodesk Takes Google To Court Over AI Movie Software Named 'Flow' (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0180761428
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/09/1742213/autodesk-takes-google-to-court-over-ai-movie-software-named-flow
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-sued-by-autodesk-over-ai-powered-movie-making-software-2026-02-09/
Autodesk says it has used the Flow name since September 2022 and that Google assured it would not commercialize a product under the same name -- then filed a trademark application in Tonga, where filings are not publicly accessible, before seeking U.S. protection.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-sued-by-autodesk-over-ai-powered-movie-making-software-2026-02-09/
Flow movie (Score:2)
There's also an absolutely wonderful animated movie called [1]Flow [wikipedia.org]. Seems like Google really doesn't care about trademarks and confusing people.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(2024_film)
Re: (Score:3)
Trademarks, especially those for common words like Flow will typically only be granted for a narrow scope of protection. Thats why companies used to make up words so they could be granted a broader protection.
Re: (Score:2)
> Thats why companies used to make up words so they could be granted a broader protection.
Oh, you mean like terms used in the globally universal language of math to indicate 1 followed by 100 zeros?
Fuck every patent chest-hoarding greedy asshole looking to stifle literal free speech. Wait until some greedy asshat in America trademarks and copyfucks "fraud". You won't ever get justice, because "infringements".
Re:Flow movie (Score:4, Insightful)
>> Thats why companies used to make up words so they could be granted a broader protection.
> Oh, you mean like terms used in the globally universal language of math to indicate 1 followed by 100 zeros?
Someone has a trademark on Googol?
Re: (Score:2)
>>> Thats why companies used to make up words so they could be granted a broader protection.
>> Oh, you mean like terms used in the globally universal language of math to indicate 1 followed by 100 zeros?
> Someone has a trademark on Googol?
> Google is named after a misspelling of "googol," the mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, reflecting founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's mission to organize the vast amount of information on the web.
No. Society has patently captured common fucking sense for ransom, and isn't giving it back. Now stop splitting cunt hairs for the cunt lawyers sake.
Re: (Score:2)
That is "googol". "google" didn't exist before Larry Page and Sergey Brin started their search engine.
Re: (Score:2)
> Trademarks, especially those for common words like Flow will typically only be granted for a narrow scope of protection.
Yes, always true.
Trademarks are based on both their distinctiveness and secondary meanings acquired through use. The more generic or descriptive the term the less likely they'll be found to be valid. Words with no prior meaning (Kodak, Xerox, etc) have the strongest protections. Not quite as good but still strong are combinations or allusions to other things (WordPerfect, Netflix, Comic-Con) and they tend to get into nasty legal fights ("Sand Diego Comic-Con" owning "Comic-Con", fighting against "Salt Lake
Amiga Flow (Score:2, Interesting)
I own the intellectual property for the software by the name of [1]Amiga Flow [archive.org] from the '80s. So both party's argument about prior art or use can get stuffed.
You can find the source code to Amiga Flow [2]here [gitlab.com].
Wankers.
[1] https://archive.org/details/amiga-new-horizon-flow-v1
[2] https://gitlab.com/amigasourcecodepreservation/flow
Re: (Score:2)
You should call a lawyer!
Re: (Score:2)
You know, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline.
I think it came out in the WB1.2 days
Re: (Score:2)
Time for an auction, sounds like! I would let them blow money on lawyers.
What about (Score:2)
The gal from Progressive insurance?
Re: (Score:2)
I got you beat you with Alice. Kiss my grits!
Logical (Score:3)
Google assured it would not commercialize a product under the same name -- then filed a trademark application in Tonga
I guess a trademark beats 'assurance' ?
Re:Logical (Score:4, Informative)
>> Google assured it would not commercialize a product under the same name -- then filed a trademark application in Tonga
> I guess a trademark beats 'assurance' ?
That summary was gibberish, probably because the original article was hard to understand. But if I understand it correctly, the article appeared to say that Google used the phrase "Google Flow" as a product name in 2025, and assured Autodesk that they would never change it to just "Flow" (without the "Google" part), then dropped the "Google" and applied for a trademark — first in Tonga, then in the U.S.
It took a fair amount of effort to extract that detail from the article, and unless I missed something subtle, the article didn't clearly specify whether Autodesk's trademark is on "Flow" or "Autodesk Flow", nor whether Google's trademark is on "Flow" or "Google Flow". I guess folks could do the trademark search if they're curious, but I would have expected those details to be much more clearly spelled out in the article.
As for me, I just wanted to understand why Autodesk asked Google for assurance that they would not commercialize a product called "Flow" if Google had not already released such a product. The "Google Flow" versus "Flow" detail was critical to understanding the summary, and should have been right up at the top of the article, too, but instead was buried in a quote from Autodesk's lawyers. My guess is that the original article's authors didn't fully understand the lawyers' claim, and as a result, the article was just one editor quote trim away from making no sense at all.
My newswriting prof would have run away screaming.
Re: (Score:2)
A search on the UK's Intellectual Property Office trademark database shows 714 registrations of the word "flow" between 1st January 2020 and 9th February 2026, but those are for specific logo designs, not the word "flow".