Reuters reported yesterday that Autodesk is suing Google for infringing on its “Flow” trademark and marketing competing AI-enabled tools that, like Autodesk’s Flow, are used to make movies, TV shows, and video games. 

In the complaint, Autodesk says it began using the “Flow” branding in September 2022, well before Google launched its “Flow” software in May 2025. The timeline of their interactions is unclear, but the Reuters article says that “Google assured [Autodesk that it] would not commercialize Flow, yet applied that [same] month to trademark the term in the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific … Google used the Tonga application to seek similar trademark protection for Flow in the U.S.” And lest you think all about nothing much, “[Google] has marketed Flow at industry events including the Sundance Film Festival” a few weeks ago. Sounds as though Autodesk notified Google of the infringement, was told “don’t worry,” and is now seeking legal redress for being lied to.

Autodesk says that “Google’s false representation that it would always use a combination of its house mark and Flow was intended to buy time to allow it to swamp Autodesk’s place in the market. Despite the success of Autodesk’s Flow products, the much larger Google will likely overwhelm the Autodesk Flow products and Flow marks.” 

And, yes, this may not be a fair fight. As Reuters points out, on Friday (the day the legal complaint was filed), Autodesk’s market cap was about $51 billion; Alphabet’s (Google’s parent) was about $3.9 trillion. Google, at least per market caps, is 76x bigger.

Autodesk isn’t the only company to try to stop Google’s (alleged) trademark infringement. Gemini Data (https://www.geminidata.com/) sued Google in 2024, saying that Google’s rebranding of its AI tool from “Bard” to “Gemini” violated its trademark rights. Gemini Data has had active federal trademark registrations for “Gemini” in the United States since 2021. The trademarks cover computer software, data collection, and analytics software that uses AI and machine learning. 

The USPTO (Patent and Trademark Office) apparently (https://www.afslaw.com/perspectives/ai-law-blog/gemini-spells-double-trouble-googles-ai-gemini-data-inc-sues-trademark) refuses to register Google’s “Gemini” applications, because it sees a “likelihood of confusion with the preexisting Gemini Data trademarks”. Even so, if you Google (hah!) “Google Gemini,” you’ll find that Google continues to use that product name (https://gemini.google.com/). 

So what does this mean for Autodesk? Years after Gemini sued Google, Google is still using the Gemini product name (I couldn’t find anything that said the court case had been heard – LMK if you know otherwise). And Google continues to use the Flow name as well. It could be a long road to a resolution. I presume Autodesk will tell us more during its earnings call on 26 February. For now, it appears to be business as usual.

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Cover photo by Sebastian Pichler: https://unsplash.com/photos/low-angle-photography-of-beige-building-bAQH53VquTc