Star blade against star blade
Stellarblade, a Louisiana film production company, is suing PlayStation and developer Shift Up over its game Stellar Blade. Agency recently discovered a lawsuit filed in a Louisiana court, in which Griffith Chambers Mehaffey, the owner of a film production company, is suing the game's developer, Sony, and an unnamed insurance company.
Stellarblade and Mehaffey claim their Louisiana-based company has provided “multimedia entertainment services,” including film, documentary, commercial and music video production services, since 2010. They also claim Mehaffey has owned the domain stellarblade.com since 2006 and has used it for his work since 2011.
Mehaffey notes that Shift Up originally announced their game as “Project Eve” in 2019, and then re-introduced it in 2021 under the same name. In 2022, the game’s title was changed to “Stellar Blade.” And in January 2023, Shift Up officially trademarked “Stellar Blade” for the game. In June 2023, Mehaffey trademarked the name “Stellarblade” himself and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Shift Up a month later.
Mehaffey says it used to be easy for people to find his business online, but now when they search for Stellarblade, they’re more likely to come across a video game called Stellar Blade. He also believes the trademarks are “confusingly similar,” pointing to the color schemes of both logos and the stylized “S.”
Now, he’s asking the court to stop Shift Up and Sony from using the name “Stellar Blade” or anything that sounds like that name. He also wants the companies to hand over all materials that have that name on them so Mehaffey and Stellarblade can destroy them. On top of that, Mehaffey is asking for damages and legal fees.
It's too early to predict the outcome of the lawsuit, but it will be interesting to see if Mehaffey can gain ground against two larger opponents.
FOUNTAIN