Renowned game developer Spribe OÜ has won another battle in a transatlantic trademark defense war. A court in Pernambuco, Brazil, recently issued a temporary injunction requiring Flutter's gambling brand Betnacional to immediately cease using the name "Aviator" and to stop copying any visual, graphic, or audiovisual elements associated with Spribe's hit game. The court's ruling includes a daily penalty for non-compliance and remains effective until the outcome of any appeal. The irony at the heart of this dispute is striking: since 2022, Betnacional has been a licensed partner of Spribe, legally using the Aviator brand, but the issue arose from a similar crash game on the platform also named "Aviator," supplied by "Aviator Studio." Spribe considered this an unauthorized copy and took the matter to court. The court's decision explicitly supported Spribe's trademark ownership registered with the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property, effectively hitting pause on this drama of "the licensed selling counterfeits."
From partner to defendant: A self-sabotaging trademark dispute
Since its debut at the end of 2018, Spribe's Aviator crash game has become a phenomenon in multiple markets worldwide. Betnacional has held legal authorization for the game since 2022 and should have been a cooperative partner. However, the platform introduced a game supplied by "Aviator Studio," similarly named and with similar gameplay, directly infringing on trademark rights. Spribe's statement after winning the case was quite strong, positioning this Brazilian ruling as "an important milestone in the company's global intellectual property protection strategy," and clearly stating its intention to take all necessary legal actions in various jurisdictions to maintain the integrity of the original Aviator experience.
This case is a microcosm of Spribe's global rights protection efforts. In August last year, Spribe obtained a similar temporary injunction in a UK court, successfully preventing competitor Aviator LLC from launching a similarly named crash game in the UK market. Spribe's founder, David Natroshvili, declared at the time: "Spribe is the sole global owner of the Aviator game, and we will continue to take all necessary measures to protect ourselves, our partners, and our players from third-party infringements." Interestingly, the feud between Aviator LLC and Spribe dates back to 2024 in Georgia—initially, Aviator LLC counter-sued Spribe for copyright and trademark infringement, leading to a deadlock where both faced claims of €330 million. However, by January 2025, Aviator LLC suddenly withdrew its claims against Flutter, with their lawyers announcing that Flutter and its subsidiaries had acknowledged Aviator LLC's rights to the Aviator trademark and airplane imagery, leading to mutual lawsuit withdrawals. This complex series of lawsuits reflects the intense global market value contest for popular game IPs.
PASA official website continues to track global gambling intellectual property protection trends, noting Spribe's clear "multi-pronged, jurisdictionally coordinated" defense strategy—from Georgia to the UK to Brazil, each victory or settlement further fortifies its global trademark moat. For gambling operators relying on popular game products to attract traffic, this case sends at least two signals: even with legal authorization, introducing third-party "reskinned" products should be carefully assessed for trademark infringement risks; and in the wave of games going international, the breadth of intellectual property arrangements and the determination of enforcement actions are becoming key variables determining the lifespan of hit products.
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