Key points
- Anthropic customer sues over the Mythos name
- Trademark office refused Anthropic’s two applications
- Anthropic’s IPO filing warns a dispute could force a rebrand
A company that uses Claude in its own software has sued Anthropic (ANT), alleging that the name of Anthropic's Mythos AI model infringes a trademark the company has used since 2015.
Global Printing, an Alexandria, Virginia, company that sells a donor-relations platform also called Mythos, filed the complaint in federal court on Nov. 13. Reuters reported the suit earlier that day.
The suit comes five days before Anthropic plans to price its IPO on Nov. 18. Global Printing is seeking Anthropic’s profits from Mythos, up to three times its damages for willful infringement, and a court order barring Anthropic from using the name or anything confusingly similar. The complaint doesn’t put a dollar figure on the damages.
The trademark office refused Anthropic's applications
Anthropic applied to register CLAUDE MYTHOS as a trademark in two categories on June 8, the complaint says. On Oct. 20, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected both applications and cited Global Printing's registration. The complaint quotes the agency's decision: "Because the marks are similar and the goods and services are related, there is a likelihood of confusion as to the source of applicant's goods and services, and registration is refused pursuant to Section 2(d) of the Trademark Act."
Those rejections were nonfinal, so Anthropic can still answer them and argue for its applications. The refusals don't themselves bar Anthropic from using the name. Global Printing is asking the court to do that.
Global Printing's registration, No. 6,140,016, covers software-as-a-service products for building databases, managing user content, and creating surveys. The complaint says the registration has become incontestable under the federal trademark law, a status that limits the grounds on which it can be challenged.
Global Printing chose Claude to power its own Mythos
Global Printing started as a commercial printer in 1979 and launched Mythos in October 2015 to show university donors what their gifts paid for, according to the complaint. The company says it chose Anthropic as its partner for agentic workflows and promoted Claude as the AI behind its platform, which now includes an assistant called Mai, short for "Mythos AI."
Anthropic previewed its Mythos model in April and released Mythos 5.2 on Nov. 9. Global Printing says both companies sell AI software as a service under the same name, and that "confusion is not only likely to result, it has already happened." The complaint doesn't give examples of that confusion.
The complaint also says Anthropic's trademark lawyers likely ran searches before the launch that turned up Global Printing's registration. It cites that to argue the infringement was willful, which is the basis for its request for triple damages.
Anthropic's IPO filing warns of a forced rebrand
Anthropic's Nov. 10 IPO filing addresses trademark disputes in general terms, without naming Mythos. It says third parties "have opposed, and may in the future oppose" its trademark applications or challenge its use of its trademarks. "In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our models, platform, and applications," the filing says.
The suit follows two others filed against Anthropic on Nov. 12. A Texas company sued over five patents, and four advocacy groups sued Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and SpaceXAI to stop new AI models, as we've detailed in our Anthropic lawsuit tracker.
Squire Patton Boggs represents Global Printing. As of Nov. 13, the docket showed no response from Anthropic.
