Key points:
- Aviator underlines that trademark was registered prior to Spribe’s establishment
- Aviator seeking invalidation of Spribe’s trademarks worldwide for the Aviator name
Aviator LLC has announced that final hearings into the dispute between itself and Spribe OU, relating to infringement of the Aviator name and logo, will take place on 14 February in the Georgian Court of Appeals.
This news comes after Flutter Entertainment, owner of Adjarabet, signed a long-term commercial partnership with Aviator to be able to market and distribute Aviator-based online games.
With this agreement in place, Flutter and Aviator have brought an end to the legal battle between each other relating to infringement of the Aviator name and logo.
However, the original lawsuit for this case, brought forward by Aviator, was also against Spribe, with the Court of First Instance in Georgia ruling in its favour in August last year and awarding it $330m in damages.
The decision found that Spribe had committed copyright and trademark infringement, and so had invalidated trademark registrations.
Following this, in October, Aviator initiated an invalidation action against Spribe before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
Good to know: Adjarabet was sold to Flutter in May 2022, but this agreement did not include the acquisition rights of the Aviator trademark
The Georgian business has now said it will continue to pursue litigation against Spribe over IP infringement and legal ownership claims of the Aviator brand, and is looking to invalidate Spribe’s trademarks worldwide for the Aviator name owing to bad faith registration and copyright infringement.
Aviator has given in-depth background on the trademark, including explaining that the original Aviator logo was created in 2017.
In 2018, City Loft LLC, the parent company of Casino Aviator and Adjarabet, registered four Aviator trademarks, while Spribe as a company was not established until after these trademarks were filed for registration, according to the filing.
