Georgian casino operator Aviator has expanded its copyright campaign against Spribe by making an appeal to the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
Earlier this year, the land-based operator successfully invalidated Spribe’s trademarks for its flagship crash game Aviator before the Georgian Court of First Instance. The online casino operator has now outlined plans “to challenge Spribe trademarks worldwide”.
Following the first successful appeal, Aviator has launched further invalidation action against the trademark with the EUIPO, arguing that the supplier registered its Aviator trademarks in bad faith and in breach of the operator’s own copyright in the EU.
“The EUIPO action represents the logical continuation of this dispute following the court’s decision,” said Nikoloz Gogilidze, Managing Partner of Mikadze Gegetchkori Taktakishvili, which represents Aviator.
“Our client is strongly committed to aggressively protecting its IP rights worldwide. Hence, after obtaining the first victory in Georgia where initial infringement took place, the next step is to challenge Spribe trademarks worldwide.”
Looking back at the Georgian case, Flutter became embroiled in the litigation as its Georgian online casino brand Adjarabet was ordered to cease operations of the Aviator crash game on its platform.
The prosecutor was awarded $330m in damages after the ruling found copyright and trademark infringement and invalidated trademark registrations based on bad faith.