PlayStation and Shift Up sued over Stellar Blade by film production company Stellarblade

PlayStation and Shift Up sued over Stellar Blade by film production company Stellarblade

by Danny Craig · 9/24/24, 11:58 AM
PlayStation and Shift Up sued over Stellar Blade by film production company Stellarblade
Sony

Stellarblade, a Louisiana-based film production company, has sued Sony for trademark infringement on Shift Up's similarly titled 2023 game, Stellar Blade.

The details:

  • As reported by IGN, the company and its owner, Griffith Chambers Mehaffey, filed the complaint in a Louisiana court earlier this month against Sony, Shift Up, and an unnamed liability insurance company that covers Sony.

  • Stellarblade (the company) states it was founded in 2010 and offers "multimedia entertainment services" including film, documentary, and music video production. Mehaffey claims to have owned the stellarblade.com domain since 2006, and began using it for the company in 2011.

  • Shift Up revealed Project Eve in 2019, and it was later renamed Stellar Blade in 2022. Mehaffy claims that since Shift Up changed the game's title, customers have had difficulty finding information about the company, with search results only returning pages about the game. The plaintiff also claims that the game's logo, trademarked in January 2023, is "confusingly similar" to its company logo, trademarked in June 2023, citing their color schemes and use of a stylized S.

  • Mehaffey is requesting payment for damages and attorney fees, as well as an order against Sony and Shift Up from using the Stellar Blade name again. He also requests that all Stellar Blade-related materials be handed over for destruction.

  • In a statement to IGN, Mehaffey’s lawyer further explained the impact that the game’s title has had on his company. “The defendants’ far superior resources have effectively monopolized online search results for STELLARBLADE, pushing Mr. Mehaffey's long-established business into digital obscurity and threatening the livelihood he's built over more than a decade,” the lawyer said.

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