LogInOne film company didn't like the game's name.
Shift Up
Stellar Blade was released in April, and everything seemed fine... until recently. It seems not everyone appreciated the game's name.
A Louisiana-based film production company called Stellarblade is suing the game's developer Shift Up and publisher Sony over its name, which is almost identical to the company's. The complaint was filed earlier this month by Stellarblade LLC and its owner Griffith Chambers Mehaffey against Shift Up, Sony, and an unnamed insurance company that allegedly covers Sony Interactive Entertainment with liability insurance, according to IGN.
Stellarblade and Mehaffey claim the company, providing "multimedia entertainment services," like film, commercial, and music video production, has existed since 2010, and Mehaffey has owned the stellarblade.com site since 2006.
As noted by IGN, Shift Up registered Stellar Blade, once known as Project Eve, as a game-related trademark in January of 2023, and Mehaffey registered his for Stellarblade in June of 2023 and then confronted Shift Up a month later.
Shift Up
Mehaffey claims that his customers now have difficulties finding information about his business because search engines show Stellar Blade the game. He also says the trademarks in question are "confusingly similar" in color schemes and the stylized S.
Mehaffey's logo
Shift Up's logo
Mehaffey wants Sony and Shift Up to stop using this and similar names and hand over all materials with Stellar Blade on them so he can destroy them. Additionally, he wants a compensation for damages and attorney fees.
"Mr. Mehaffey registered the stellarblade.com domain in 2006 and has used the STELLARBLADE name for his business for nearly 15 years," Mehaffey's lawyer told IGN. "Given this long-standing and public use, it's difficult to imagine that Shift Up and Sony were unaware of Mr. Mehaffey's established rights before adopting their identical mark. We believe in fair competition, but when larger companies disregard the established rights of smaller businesses, it's our responsibility to stand up and protect our brand. 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."
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