In a galaxy far, far away: game maker attempts Lucasfilm infringement block

As one of the world’s biggest franchises, there are a number of individuals and businesses trying to monopolise on the huge success of Star Wars.

Many of these businesses are successfully blocked but the latest is putting up a bit of a fight.

The Star Wars franchise was created by George Lucas who is the founder of Lucasfilm. They are TV and film production company behind the whole franchise.

Lucasfilm, who are now owned by Disney, filed a claim against Ren Ventures at the end of last year. The claim was in respect of trade mark infringement and their use of ‘Sabacc’ in respect of a game.

Ren Ventures are a UK based game maker, who produce a mobile phone game under the name ‘Sabacc’.

In the Star Wars films, Sabacc is a card game through which Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon aircraft.

Lucasfilm initially sought to invalidate Ren Ventures trade mark for ‘Sabacc’ on the grounds that their use would cause confusion with Lucasfilm’s use.

Last week, Ren Ventures file a partial motion to dismiss on the grounds that Lucasfilm did not have a registered trade mark or a pending trade mark application on which to base their infringement claim.

Therefore, Ren Ventures are arguing that as Lucasfilm are not able to provide evidence of trade mark priority therefore their claim should be dismissed.

It is likely that this will not be the end of the matter, as Lucasfilm have also filed a claim for copyright infringement but it will be interesting to see if the little guys take any successes over the big guys in this case.

By Ellis Sweetenham