AI startup ScribeHealth.ai forced to rebrand to HealOS.ai after losing its .AI domain in a trademark dispute

Back in April, TechStartups.com published “From .AI to .com: The Quiet Domain Rebrand Sweeping the Startup Ecosystem,” a piece that explored how AI startups were quietly moving away from .ai domains in favor of .com. At the time, the shift looked like a branding trend — founders trading hype for trust as they matured from early-stage experiments into serious companies.

Six months later, that trend has turned into a warning. A Y Combinator–backed startup, ScribeHealth.ai, has just lost its domain name in a UDRP ruling that forced it to rebrand to HealOS.ai. The case shows that the risk of building on .ai isn’t theoretical anymore — it’s happening right now, and it can cost founders their entire brand overnight.

The Risk of .AI Domain Names

What Happened

ScribeHealth.ai, a health-tech startup building medical documentation software, has lost ownership of its domain name following a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) case. The dispute, filed by JPJ Ventures LLC, the operator of IScribeHealth, ended with a ruling ordering that ScribeHealth.ai be transferred to JPJ Ventures. The decision was issued on October 14, 2025, by panelist Sandra J. Franklin under case number FA2509002177530.

JPJ Ventures, which holds U.S. trademarks for ISCRIBEHEALTH dating back to 2018, argued that ScribeHealth.ai was confusingly similar to its mark and that both companies operated in the same industry. The panel agreed, finding that dropping a single letter and adding the .ai extension didn’t make the domain distinctive enough to avoid confusion.

The panel also found that ScribeHealth.ai collected user information and competed directly with IScribeHealth, a factor that contributed to a finding of bad faith registration and use. In its decision, the panel wrote that the .ai extension “adds to confusing similarity” because the complainant also uses ISCRIBE AI and operates in the same artificial intelligence field.

ScribeHealth’s founder, Saumik Tewari, argued that “scribe” and “health” are generic industry terms and that the startup had legitimate interests through Y Combinator acceptance and funding. But the panel wasn’t convinced, ruling that operating under a confusingly similar name in the same space doesn’t qualify as legitimate use.

In short, the panel concluded that ScribeHealth.ai had registered and used the domain in bad faith and ordered it to be transferred to JPJ Ventures. Following the ruling, the founder rebranded the project to HealOS.ai — though the matching .com domain, HealOS.com, is currently listed for sale on Atom, suggesting the risk may not be over.

“Having established all three elements required under the ICANN Policy, the Panel concludes that relief shall be GRANTED.Accordingly, it is Ordered that the scribehealth.ai domain name be TRANSFERRED from Respondent to Complainant,”  the panel wrote in its decision.

.AI Domain Name and Trademark: A Legal Wake-Up Call for Founders

This case exposes the growing legal vulnerability tied to .ai domains. Many founders assume .ai carries the same protections as .com, but it doesn’t. .ai is technically the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Anguilla, a small British territory in the Caribbean. That distinction matters. Trademark protections and dispute enforcement can differ from those governing global TLDs like .com or .net.

When a company already holds a registered trademark, using the same or a similar name under .ai can trigger trademark enforcement actions — even if the domain owner believes their use is fair or descriptive. Once a complaint is filed, founders risk losing their entire domain overnight.

The Bigger Picture

Back in April, TechStartups.com highlighted that startups like Scale, Modular, and Pymetrics had already begun moving away from .ai to .com as they scaled. At the time, the switch looked like a strategic move to strengthen trust, improve SEO, and prepare for enterprise growth.

Now, the ScribeHealth.ai ruling confirms those moves were more than branding decisions — they were preventative ones. A single UDRP complaint can erase years of brand equity, investor recognition, and organic traffic in a matter of days.

As we wrote then, credibility doesn’t always scale. Startups that once used .ai to look innovative are realizing that .com remains the gold standard for permanence, recognition, and trust — especially when courting enterprise clients or mainstream users.

Why This Case Matters

The ScribeHealth.ai decision is more than a domain dispute; it’s a reality check for the startup ecosystem. The .ai gold rush is creating legal blind spots that founders often overlook until it’s too late.

If your brand lives on a .ai domain that overlaps with a registered trademark, you’re one complaint away from losing it — no matter how much you’ve raised or how many users you have.

For founders, the lesson is clear: check for existing trademarks before you register a .ai, and think long-term about your brand’s foundation. What seems like a clever shortcut today could cost you your company’s name tomorrow.

Attribution: This case summary is based on Forum Claim Number FA2509002177530, JPJ Ventures, LLC v. Saumik Tewari, with the full ruling dated October 14, 2025. The UDRP story was first reported by DomainGang and includes additional reporting by TechStartups.com.