In news we weren’t expecting today, a company called Stellarblade has sued Sony Interactive Entertainment and Stellar Blade dev Shift Up over the game’s title. The Louisana-based film production company, which has been in existence since 2010, has accused Sony and Shift Up of trademark infringement.
Why Stellar Blade is being sued by Stellarblade
As reported by IGN, the lawsuit was filed earlier in September by Stellarblade LLC owner Griffith Chambers Mehaffey, who claims that he has owned the stellarblade.com domain since 2006, and has been using it for work since 2011. The company itself was set up in 2010 and provides “multimedia entertainment services.”
Stellarblade and Mehaffey said that when the game’s title was changed from Project Eve to Stellar Blade, Shift Up filed a trademark application for the new title. Seeing this, Mehaffey registered his own trademark and sent a cease and desist letter to the studio because he’s been conducting business as Stellarblade for 15 years. The plaintiffs have complained that Mehaffey’s business has taken a hit because customers are unable to search for the company and its services online as search results have been cannibalized by the game.
Stellarblade and Mehaffey are now seeking damages. Their lawyer told IGN in a statement that 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.”
Sony and Shift Up have yet to respond.
