OpenAI just hit a legal roadblock that forced it to rebrand a key feature in its video generator Sora. A U.S. court has barred the AI company from using the name "Cameo" for its video personalization tool, compelling an immediate rename to "Characters." The ruling marks another chapter in the growing tensions between fast-moving AI startups and established tech brands over naming rights, and it shows how trademark disputes can force even the industry's biggest players to back down.
OpenAI thought it had a catchy name for one of Sora's standout features. Turns out, the courts disagreed. The company has been forced to retire the "Cameo" branding for its video generation tool that lets users insert personalized elements into AI-created videos, switching instead to the more generic "Characters" label.
The court order, first reported by TechCrunch, doesn't spell out every detail of the legal clash, but the culprit is almost certainly the celebrity video platform also called Cameo. That company has built a recognizable brand around personalized video messages from celebrities and influencers since launching in 2017. When OpenAI rolled out its own "Cameo" feature in Sora, it apparently crossed into protected trademark territory.
What's striking here is how quickly OpenAI moved to comply. The company has already swapped out the branding across its platform, suggesting the court's injunction came with teeth. It's a rare public stumble for OpenAI, which has otherwise dominated headlines with its product velocity and aggressive feature rollouts. But trademark law doesn't care about your launch momentum.
The original Cameo feature, now called Characters, lets users create consistent character appearances across multiple Sora-generated video clips. It's a technically impressive capability that addresses one of generative video's biggest challenges: maintaining visual consistency. Users can define a character's appearance once, then have that same character appear across different scenes and scenarios. For content creators and marketers, that's potentially game-changing functionality.
