The Pernambuco Court of Justice has lifted the preliminary injunction initially granted to Spribe OÜ regarding its disputed AVIATOR trademark in Brazil. This decision comes after significant changes in the legal context underpinning the prior ruling.
Judge Andrea Epaminondas Tenorio de Brito stated that the factual and legal grounds for the injunction are no longer applicable. This follows a recent ruling from the Federal Court in Brasília, which temporarily suspended the legal validity of Spribe’s AVIATOR trademark registration in Brazil.
Consequently, the court instructed Spribe not to assert exclusivity based on this registration until the federal invalidation process is fully addressed. The court clarified that its original decision was predicated on the assumption that Spribe’s trademark registration was legitimate and in force.
With the Federal Court's action to suspend the registration's effects, the Pernambuco Court ruled that the reasons justifying the initial injunction had significantly changed, leading to its revocation under Article 296 of the Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure.
In a related development, the Public Prosecutor's Office for the Federal District and Territories launched an investigation in June into what it labeled as abusive practices by Spribe, specifically targeting misleading advertising and unfair commercial practices. The inquiry claims discrepancies exist between the advertised and actual Return to Player (RTP) rates. In light of these findings, the Prosecutor's Office has urged the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets to suspend the technical certification of Spribe’s games and prohibit them from use by licensed operators.
This scrutiny arose from a lawsuit by Aviator Studio Brasil, which demonstrated that the Aviator trademark had been established and in use prior to Spribe’s local protection claim. The court acknowledged that the Aviator trademark originated in Georgia back in 2016, officially registered there in 2018, well before Spribe's Brazilian registration. Additionally, previous court decisions in Georgia invalidated Spribe's claim to the Aviator trademark, affirming the rights of the original trademark holder.
