Aviator Trademark War Splits Brazil's Courts as Spribe and Aviator Studio Trade Wins

The 18th Federal Civil Court of the Federal District in Brazil has suspended Spribe's registered "Aviator" trademark while a wider ownership case proceeds, handing the latest win to rival Aviator Studio. The court cited "sufficient reason" to challenge Spribe's position, pointing to parallel proceedings in other jurisdictions, including Georgia rulings that invalidated Spribe's trademark claims. The decision strips Spribe of the exclusivity its Brazilian registration conferred and adds to a run of contradictory verdicts across at least three countries.

Aviator Studio CEO George Pruidze called the ruling "an important step in protecting the Aviator brand," adding that the company remains "committed to defending the integrity of the Aviator brand." Aviator Studio says the name originated in Georgia in 2016 and was formally registered in 2018, predating Spribe's claims. It operates the mark in Brazil under a license from Aviator LLC and runs commercial partnerships locally, including with Foggo Entertainment (Blaze).

A game worth fighting over

Aviator is the title the entire crash-game category was built around, which is why its ownership is contested in court rather than settled by agreement.

Spribe says Aviator draws roughly 13 times more players and processes more than twice as many bets as the land-based casinos of Las Vegas, Macau and London combined, which it puts at 4.5 million players and 8.3 billion bets a month. Spribe operates the game as Spribe OÜ and has signed multi-year marketing deals with the UFC and WWE to extend the brand. It says it developed the Aviator crash game in late 2018 and holds a registered trademark with Brazil's National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), granting exclusive rights nationwide under industrial property law.

The courts are split

Brazil's courts are not speaking with one voice, and the wider picture spans several jurisdictions:

• Brazil, Federal District (June 17, 2026): the 18th Federal Civil Court suspended Spribe's "Aviator" trademark, backing Aviator Studio.
• Brazil, Pernambuco (April 16, 2026): the Court of Justice of Pernambuco (TJPE) granted Spribe OÜ an interim injunction ordering NSX Brasil S.A., operator of Betnacional, to immediately stop using the Aviator mark and "identical or confusingly similar signs," with daily fines for non-compliance, pending appeal. Spribe said Betnacional had been an authorized licensee since 2022 and that the disputed game, supplied by Aviator Studio in 2025, breached that agreement. NSX is now part of Flutter Entertainment, which acquired a majority stake in the NSX Group. Spribe called the decision "a significant milestone in Spribe's worldwide strategy to safeguard its assets."
• Brazil, São Paulo appeals (April 16, 2026): the São Paulo Court of Appeals twice declined to grant Spribe an injunction against Aviator Studio Brazil, finding "the conditions required for urgent judicial intervention had not been met," insufficient likelihood of success, and no imminent or irreparable harm. The court noted that exclusive "Aviator" ownership remains disputed at home and abroad.
• Georgia: the Court of First Instance awarded Aviator LLC €330 million (roughly US$357m) in damages, a figure equal to what Flutter paid for Adjarabet in 2019, and invalidated Spribe's trademarks. On May 20, 2025, the Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed Spribe's appeal as inadmissible, finalizing the invalidation and finding the marks were registered in bad faith and in violation of Aviator LLC's copyright.
• United Kingdom: a judge declined Aviator Studio's bid to fast-track the ownership question, citing contested facts and foreign-law considerations, and earlier granted Spribe an injunction restraining Aviator LLC from launching a competing crash game. The case continues.

One earlier strand has already closed. In January 2025, Aviator LLC dropped its trademark claim against Flutter after the two reached a long-term commercial partnership, under which Aviator-branded games are now marketed and distributed internationally by Flutter. Aviator LLC has granted Aviator Studio an exclusive, irrevocable global license for the branding and IP. Litigation against Spribe continued separately.

What it means for operators and affiliates

Crash games are among the most heavily promoted products in affiliate marketing across Latin America, Africa and Asia, and "Aviator" is a high-volume search and acquisition term that operators place front and center. The split rulings make the name a commercial variable rather than a fixed asset. A brand that wins traffic in one market can draw a cease-and-desist in another, and an operator running the game today can be ordered to rename or remove it tomorrow depending on which court and jurisdiction applies. Betnacional, owned by a Flutter subsidiary, is the live example: ordered off the Aviator name in Pernambuco while Aviator Studio simultaneously kept operating it in São Paulo.

The stakes are sized by the market itself. Brazil's regulated online betting market launched on January 1, 2025 and produced about R$37 billion (roughly US$7bn) in gross gaming revenue in its first year across 79 licensed companies and 25.2 million bettors, according to government figures. The Federal Revenue Service collected close to R$10 billion (roughly US$1.9bn) in tax on the sector, which paid a 12% GGR rate in 2025, set to rise to 13% in 2026, 14% in 2027 and 15% by 2028. For affiliates running Aviator campaigns into Brazil's fast-growing regulated market, the name now carries legal risk that varies by border, and contesting parties hold injunctions on both sides of it.