Curaçao court voids Aviator LLC trademarks, Spribe gains ground in global IP war
Curaçao court invalidates two Aviator trademarks held by Aviator LLC after default judgment, handing Spribe a strategic win in a multi-jurisdictional battle.
The Court of First Instance of Curaçao has invalidated two Aviator-branded trademark registrations held by Aviator LLC, handing Spribe a default judgment after the Tbilisi-based company failed to appear in proceedings.
The ruling, dated 25 May 2026 and corrected four days later, strikes from the register international registrations IR 1822051 and IR 1827771. Both were filed in 2024 and designated Curaçao under the Madrid Protocol.
Spribe, the developer behind the hugely popular Aviator crash game, holds an earlier Curaçao registration for the same mark, granted in August 2023. The court also ordered Aviator LLC to pay legal costs of just over €1,063.
The Curaçao win is the latest twist in a global legal battle that has swung between the two companies. In Georgia, Spribe suffered a major blow when a court found its trademarks were registered in bad faith and infringed Aviator LLC’s copyright, awarding $330m in damages. Georgia’s Supreme Court upheld that decision in May 2025.
In the UK, Spribe has fared better. The High Court granted an interim injunction in July 2025 blocking Aviator LLC from launching a rival crash game in Britain. In May 2026, deputy judge Michael Tappin KC ruled that the Georgian court findings could not be automatically applied under English law.
A full trial on ownership of the Aviator brand is expected in late 2026 or early 2027.
Aviator LLC is linked to Spribe’s former Georgian licensee, once also named Aviator LLC and now called AB Georgia LLC. That company had rights to operate the Aviator game only in Georgia and Armenia under agreements from 2018 and 2021.
Spribe told the Curaçao court that the disputed registrations were made without its consent. One of them was originally filed by Rational Intellectual Holdings Limited and transferred to Aviator LLC in March 2025.
Spribe has now launched more than 120 opposition proceedings worldwide against Aviator LLC’s trademark filings and their national designations. Aviator LLC has also taken action elsewhere, confirming in May that it had started separate legal proceedings against betting operator Betway in South Africa over alleged brand use.
For Malta’s iGaming community, the case is a clear signal of the risks in multi-jurisdictional trademark disputes. Operators and developers must secure early registrations in all key markets and be prepared to defend them across different legal systems. A default judgment in one jurisdiction can shift the balance, but a loss in another can cost hundreds of millions.