Stellar Blade: Zack and Sony have a lawsuit on their hands

Sony's lawyers might be less happy about this: A movie production company has filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement, and of course the company's name is Stellarblade.

Despite Stellar Blade’s success, lawyers now have to get involved. The owner of the Louisiana-based production company Stellarblade has filed a lawsuit against Sony and development studio Shift Up. Stellarblade claims trademark infringement and that its use of the name will harm its business.

Stellarblade says it has been around since 2010 and offers multimedia entertainment services such as film production, documentaries, advertising, and music videos. The company's owner also owns the domain stellarblade.com and has been running a similar website since 2011.

Things get tricky when it comes to trademark rights. Shift Up registered Stellar Blade as a video game trademark shortly after renaming Project Eve, while Stellarblade was later registered in June 2023, prompting a cease and desist notice to Sony. And while Stellarblade came first, Stellar Blade was registered first. Ugh.

Company owner Mehaffey also claims that his customers were able to easily find information about his company, while people searching for Stellarblade services online now only find the Stellar Blade video game. Additionally, he claims that his company’s trademarks are confusingly similar, pointing to the color schemes of both logos and the stylized letter S.

Stellarblade is now demanding damages, a cessation of use of the Stellar Blade trademark and the surrender of all Stellar Blade-branded materials for destruction. Strong demands and it will be interesting to see how this plays out. There has been no statement from Sony.