Game maker tries to end Lucasfilm ‘Star Wars’ TM battle
UK-based game maker Ren Ventures has attempted to dismiss a trademark infringement claim brought by Lucasfilm over a fictional card game in the “ Star Wars” universe.
US-based Lucasfilm, now owned by Disney, is a TV and film production company founded by George Lucas, creator of the “Star Wars” franchise.
Lucasfilm filed a lawsuit against Ren Ventures in December last year at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, alleging trademark infringement over the game maker’s ‘Sabacc’ trademark (US trademark number 5,025,710).
In the “Star Wars” franchise, Sabacc is a fictional card game. Han Solo won a game of Sabacc order and, in doing so, obtained the famed Millennium Falcon aircraft.
Ren Ventures exclusively licensed the trademark to Sabacc Creative Industries, where it was used to market a game for mobile phones.
In May 2017, Lucasfilm instituted a trademark cancellation proceeding at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), claiming that Ren Ventures’ mark is likely to cause confusion with Lucasfilm’s “putative Sabacc mark”.
Ren Ventures sought partial-summary judgment of the TTAB proceeding, claiming that Lucasfilm lacked trademark rights to the term. Lucasfilm then filed its lawsuit.
On February 15, Ren Ventures filed a partial motion to dismiss the claims of trademark infringement and unfair competition. Lucasfilm is also suing Ren Ventures for copyright infringement, and cancellation of the game maker’s trademark is being sought.
In its motion, Ren Ventures claimed that despite Lucasfilm’s use of the term ‘Sabacc’, Lucasfilm has never applied to register the word as a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark office, nor does it own a pending trademark application.
Ren Ventures argued that Lucasfilm’s claims of ownership are “implausible because plaintiffs cannot prove trademark priority”.
While the term was used in a 1980 novelisation of “The Empire Strikes Back” it was not used again until a trilogy of novels about Lando Calrissian—a character in the franchise—three years later in 1983.
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