Tesla and SpaceX sue small Illinois firm over Terafab trademark in federal court

Tesla and SpaceX seek preemptive ruling on Terafab name

Tesla, SpaceX and a related company identified in the filing as SpaceXAI filed suit on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin, asking a federal judge to rule that their use of "Terafab" does not infringe the trademark held by TERA-print LLC, a small nanotechnology company based in Illinois. The court officially notified TERA-print of the case the following day. The plaintiffs are seeking a declaratory judgment rather than waiting to be sued themselves, an unusual posture that the filings frame as a response to TERA-print's escalating threats earlier in the summer.

TERA-print's cease-and-desist and trademark expansion

According to the complaint, Tesla filed three U.S. trademark applications for "Terafab" and "Tesla Terafab" on May 18, 2026, covering semiconductor chips and related chip-making services, following Tesla's public announcement of the Terafab manufacturing project on March 21, 2026. TERA-print, which holds U.S. Trademark Registration No. 6,295,482 for "TERA-FAB" issued in March 2021 and used on desktop photolithography printers sold to researchers, sent a cease-and-desist letter on May 23, 2026. By June 10, the filing states, the Illinois company was threatening to sue for federal trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition. One day before sending that letter, on May 22, TERA-print filed a new trademark application seeking to extend its registration to cover semiconductor materials, silicon chips, nanoelectronic devices and AI design services.

Plaintiffs call the expansion "opportunistic"

Tesla and SpaceX argue in their complaint that TERA-print's existing registration covered only small desktop lab printers used for sensor and bioengineering research, not computer chips or semiconductors. They describe the May 22 expansion filing as "opportunistic," noting that it came two months after Tesla's public Terafab announcement and shortly after Tesla's own trademark filings, and they contend the timing suggests an attempt to broaden trademark rights in response to the chip project rather than in the ordinary course of business.

Separate fight over Terafab-related records

The trademark suit is not the only pending Terafab-related litigation involving SpaceX. Reporting from one week earlier indicated that SpaceX had filed a separate action aimed at keeping company records tied to Terafab out of the public domain. The new federal filing does not reference that earlier dispute, and the two matters remain procedurally distinct, though both stem from the same underlying Terafab manufacturing initiative.

What remains unresolved

TERA-print had not, as of the date the lawsuit was filed, initiated its own infringement action, and the federal court has not yet ruled on the plaintiffs' request for a declaratory judgment. The case now turns on whether TERA-print's original 2021 registration, and its pending expansion application, give it enforceable rights in the semiconductor and chip-making categories that Tesla and SpaceX's planned factory would occupy.