PlayStation/Stellar Blade Facing Lawsuit For Similar Name To Louisiana-Based Firm

From its release earlier this spring, Stellar Blade remains one of the highlights for the PlayStation 5. In our review for the game, we scored it an 8.5/10. “As players embark on Eve’s quest for truth and justice, they’ll find themselves immersed in a world where every choice carries weight, and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance,” Rectify Gaming wrote in its review.

More recently this week, Stellar Blade also received new content underway. In one reveal from the PlayStation State of Play showcase, protagonist Eve is to receive a rescue bot in a promised update coming later this year. Additionally, the game itself teased photo mode alongside a new collab update with Nier Automata as well.

However, Shift Up alongside Sony Interactive Entertainment are in the crosshairs of a new lawsuit with one firm based in Louisiana. Reported by IGN, Stellarblade LLC is a multimedia entertainment venture which filed its trademark in 2006. Owner Griffith Chambers Mehaffey alleges the infringement is causing damage for the name.

A lawyer representing Mehaffey issued a statement to IGN on the matter:

Mr. Mehaffey registered the stellarblade.com domain in 2006 and has used the STELLARBLADE name for his business for nearly 15 years. 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.

In the case, Mehaffey argues that the issue is based on the extreme likeness that both trademarks share. He indicated that clientele could find his name without issue. But this has since then changed once the official title was revealed for the game. Originally, Stellar Blade was codenamed ‘Project Eve’ before its current title.

Mehaffey does ask for Shift Up & PlayStation to give up any materials containing the name “Stellar Blade” and to prevent both parties from using a similar alias or title. However, it is unsure the length of this lawsuit or if it will be successful. Previously, Take-Two Interactive filed a similar case against Hazelight Studios for It Takes Two back in 2021, but little has materialized since then. You can read the full report by heading here.

Are you surprised by this new development against Stellar Blade?

Source: IGN