Overview:
Xai claims trademark infringement by Elon Musk’s xAI. How might consumer surveys clear the matrix of alleged consumer confusion?
Gaming Assets
Ex Populus, Inc.’s Xai is a trademark for a gaming network built on Ethereum, a cryptocurrency. Xai is designed specifically for video games; it makes transactions of video game assets faster, cheaper, and more flexible, so developers can build more complex and scalable Web3 games. Backed by Ex Populus, Xai also has its own token ($XAI) and a growing family of blockchain-powered games.
Certain types of video games involve financial transactions because players buy, sell, and trade digital items including skins, weapons, or other items. Transactions were traditionally tracked on a company’s servers, but blockchain gaming means transactions are publicly recorded on a ledger, so players can own their digital assets and even trade them outside the game. This legitimizes gaming economies, making them more transparent and valuable, like having a real marketplace built into the game world.
Elon Musk, technology entrepreneur, created the artificial intelligence company xAI (or X.AI Corp.) in 2023. Its main product is Grok, a chatbot tool whose stated mission is to “understand the true nature of the universe.” xAI emphasizes that its outputs “advance human comprehension and capabilities.”
Etheric Dispute Grounded in Courts
In August 2025, Ex Populus filed a federal lawsuit against Musk’s xAI, alleging that the Musk company was infringing on its registered trademark in XAI. To make matters worse for Musk, the lawsuit said, Musk announced in 2025 that he would use xAI to “start an AI game studio to make games great again.” This kicked off what the lawsuit said was rampant confusion in the marketplace, with consumers and video game industry publications confusing the two companies and social media users tagging both companies in posts intended for only one company.
The complaint says xAI knew of the potential for confusion, as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office suspended many of its trademark applications for potential confusion with the Ex Populus XAI mark. Rather than change its name or work out a compromise, the lawsuit says, Musk’s company “attempted to bully Plaintiff into relinquishing its superior trademark rights.” The claim also alleges that the negative publicity around xAI’s Grok chatbot, including incidents where it was pulled offline after making racist and antisemitic comments, damaged the Ex Populus XAI mark by association.
Clearing Consumer Confusion
A central issue in this complaint is whether consumers are confusing Ex Populus with xAI because of the similarity of the companies’ marks, or believe they’re associated in some way. Consumer survey research can help clear these issues.
Most importantly, this dispute could benefit from one or more likelihood of confusion surveys, which could measure whether consumers mistakenly associate the two marks. If Musk has made xAI well known or famous, a confusion survey in this case could be a reverse confusion survey, meaning that it tests whether consumers in the market for services from Xai, the senior user, incorrectly believe those services come from Musk’s xAI. (A forward confusion survey would test the opposite—whether consumers believe Musk’s xAI comes from Ex Populus.) In addition, because Ex Populus alleges reputational harm from association with Musk, Grok, and xAI, a survey could measure whether the XAI mark has been diluted by blurring.
The Trademark Case of 2025 Requires Reliable Survey Research
Courts and litigators heavily scrutinize evidence in complex and high-profile trademark infringement matters. To be admissible and persuasive, trademark surveys typically must represent the relevant consumer population (e.g., gamers and AI users in Xai’s case), include controls if they are intended to demonstrate a significant likelihood of confusion, be unbiased in design, and ask questions that reflect how consumers actually encounter the marks in the marketplace. Surveys that miss these points can mean game over for either party.
Millions of impressions and billions of dollars are at stake in this trademark infringement case. Where stakes are high, reliable consumer surveys could be a winning play. Reach out to IMS Legal Strategies to discuss your case.
This post was written with 100% public information.