March 12 (Reuters) - Artificial technology company

OpenAI has expanded its stable of federal lobbyists, retaining

former Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman to advocate on research

and development issues for the Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed startup.

Coleman's law firm Hogan Lovells disclosed the hire in a

U.S. lobbying registration filing last week, showing San

Francisco-based OpenAI retained the former Minnesota lawmaker in

January.

OpenAI, which owns the chatbot ChatGPT and has become the

face of generative AI, is embroiled in myriad legal fights,

including copyright infringement claims from authors and others.

It has denied any intellectual property violations.

Billionaire entrepreneur and OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk is

also suing the company in San Francisco court, accusing it of

straying from its nonprofit mission to develop AI that helps

humanity.

OpenAI and its two other co-founders, including Sam Altman,

have called the lawsuit "convoluted" and "incoherent."

OpenAI and Coleman, a senior counsel at 2,600-lawyer Hogan

Lovells, on Tuesday did not immediately respond to requests for

comment.

Other prominent law firms, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer

& Feld and DLA Piper, have registered lobbyists for OpenAI.

OpenAI in November first registered an in-house lobbyist,

Chan Park, head of the company's U.S. and Canada policy and

partnerships team.

Park was formerly senior director of congressional affairs

at Microsoft ( MSFT ) before joining OpenAI last year. He did not

immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday about

the company's lobbying.

The company disclosed spending $260,000 on U.S. lobbying in

the fourth quarter on matters, including copyright and

journalism. OpenAI has projected a revenue surge in 2024.

Coleman served in the U.S. Senate from 2003 to 2009 and

joined Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., in 2011.

The ex-senator's other lobbying clients at the firm include

T-Mobile USA, United States Steel ( X ) and Xcel Energy ( XEL ).

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