The Louisiana film company Stellarblade sued the authors of the post-apocalyptic action film Stellar Blade from the South Korean studio Shift Up and the game publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment over the name of the action film.
Image source: SHIFT UP
According to the IGN portal, Stellarblade accuses the creators of Stellar Blade of violating trademark rights: due to an overly similar trademark, the company’s clients cannot find the information they need and constantly end up visiting the game.
Stellarblade owner Griffith Chambers Mehaffey claims that he has owned the domain stellarblade.com since 2006, and the company itself has existed since 2010.
Stellarblade and Stellar Blade trademark logos (image source: Stellarblade and Shift Up)
According to the plaintiff, given Stellarblade’s “longstanding and public use,” it is difficult to imagine a situation in which Shift Up and Sony could not have known about Mehaffey’s trademark when they registered their trademark.
«We believe in fair competition, but when large companies disregard the established rights of small businesses, it is our responsibility to protect our brand. Using extensive resources, defendants effectively monopolized online search results for Stellarblade, dooming Mr. Mehaffey’s decades-long business into digital oblivion and threatening his livelihood,” Mehaffey’s lawyer said in a statement to IGN.
Stellar Blade appeared to the public in 2019 as Project Eve and changed its name to the final one in September 2022
Stellarblade is demanding that Shift Up and Sony stop using the Stellar Blade name and submit all infringing materials for destruction. Mehaffi also aims to receive monetary compensation for the damage caused to his company.
Stellar Blade was released on April 26 on PS5, received high marks from critics (and even higher from users) and sold over 1 million copies. It appears that work is currently underway on a PC version of the game.