Pernambuco Court Rejects Every Spribe Claim Against Betnacional Over Aviator

The state court that granted Spribe an injunction against NSX in April, then revoked it in July when a federal court suspended the developer's trademark, has now ruled on the merits: no trademark infringement, no copyright infringement, no unfair competition. It is the third Brazilian decision in a row to go against the Estonian studio, three days after a Brasília judge ordered it to police its own distribution.

• A court in the state of Pernambuco has dismissed all of Spribe's claims against NSX Brasil, the Flutter-owned company behind Betnacional, finding no trademark infringement, no copyright infringement and no unfair competition, according to a statement published by iGaming Future on Thursday
• The same court had granted Spribe an interim injunction on 15 April ordering NSX to stop using the Aviator name and any "identical or confusingly similar signs", then revoked it in July after the 18th Federal Civil Court of the Federal District suspended Spribe's Brazilian registration No. 501759803 pending an invalidation action brought by Aviator Studio Brasil
• The statement says the judgment follows first-instance and appellate decisions in São Paulo that refused Spribe urgent measures against Aviator Studio, allowing that company to keep operating while the trademark dispute runs
• Spribe's Brazilian position has been under pressure for a week: on 15 September a Brasília judge gave it ten days to cut Aviator off unlicensed operators at R$100,000 a day, in a case where prosecutors are seeking R$110m
• Outside Brazil the studio is winning: a Malta court ordered Aviator Studio to stop using the name in the EU on 1 September, and it secured a procedural victory in the UK in May
• Spribe had not published a response at the time of writing; the judgment is a first-instance decision and can be appealed to the Pernambuco Court of Justice

How the Pernambuco Case Turned

When Spribe went to court in Pernambuco in April, it looked like the decisive front. The Court of Justice of Pernambuco granted an interim order on 15 April requiring NSX to discontinue the Aviator mark, any confusingly similar sign and any related visual or audio elements, on pain of daily fines. Spribe's case rested on its registration of the Aviator mark with Brazil's INPI and on the fact that Betnacional had been an authorised licensee of the game since 2022 before switching to a rival crash title supplied by a company called Aviator Studio. "This interim decision in Brazil marks a significant milestone in Spribe's worldwide strategy to safeguard its assets," the studio said at the time.

The foundation moved in July. Aviator Studio Brasil had brought an invalidation action in the federal courts, arguing that the Aviator brand originated in Georgia in 2016 and was registered there in 2018, before Spribe obtained Brazilian protection, and citing Georgian rulings that had invalidated Spribe's registrations. The 18th Federal Civil Court of the Federal District suspended the legal effect of Spribe's registration and barred the company from claiming exclusivity until a final ruling. Judge Andrea Epaminondas Tenorio de Brito in Pernambuco then revoked the April injunction under Article 296 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which allows interim relief to be withdrawn when the circumstances that justified it change. That order did not decide who owns the mark; it said only that Spribe could no longer rely on a suspended registration.

Thursday's statement says the court has now reached the merits and rejected every head of claim: the trademark case, the copyright case and the unfair competition case. The judgment itself has not been published with the statement, which is written from the perspective of the winning side, and Spribe has not responded. A first-instance ruling in a Brazilian state court can be appealed to the state's Court of Justice.

A Bad Week in Brazil, a Good Month Everywhere Else

The Pernambuco decision lands three days after a different Brazilian court took a different kind of shot at Spribe. On 15 September the Brasília court hearing the public prosecutor's R$110m claim over Aviator's presence on unlicensed sites refused to ground the game but ordered the studio to name every partner, suspend illegal integrations and geo-block, at R$100,000 a day for non-compliance. Prosecutors in the Federal District had separately opened an inquiry in June into alleged misleading advertising and a possible gap between advertised and actual return to player, and recommended that certification of Spribe's games be suspended while they examine it.

Elsewhere, the studio is on the front foot. On 1 September the First Hall of the Civil Court in Malta granted Spribe an ex parte provisional injunction against Aviator Studio covering two EU trademarks, citing the two games appearing side by side in a search on Betsson. In the UK, where Spribe holds an injunction against Aviator LLC from August 2025, it won a procedural ruling in May. The Georgian dispute that started it all, in which Aviator LLC accused Spribe of infringing its imagery, was partly settled when Aviator LLC dropped its claim against Flutter in January 2025.

Brazil Is Where the Trademark Is Weakest

Spribe's global strategy runs on registrations, and in Brazil the registration is suspended. Every decision since July follows from that: no valid mark, no injunction, and now no infringement. The merits judgment in Pernambuco is the first to say so in terms rather than by implication, and it comes from the court that was Spribe's best result in the country five months ago. Until the federal invalidation case is decided, Spribe has no exclusivity to enforce in the largest regulated market in Latin America.

Betnacional Was a Licensee, Which Cuts Both Ways

Spribe's argument was that a former partner had swapped the real game for a lookalike under the same name. NSX's answer, which has now prevailed at first instance, is that the name was never Spribe's to license in Brazil. Operators watching the case have a practical lesson: a supplier's trademark is only as good as its registration in the jurisdiction where the operator is licensed, and a licence agreement does not settle who owns the brand.

The Splits Are Now Permanent Until Someone Wins on Ownership

Malta and the UK say Aviator Studio must stop. Pernambuco and São Paulo say it may continue. Georgia said Spribe's registrations were invalid. None of these courts is deciding the same question, and none of them can decide the others'. Spribe's route back in Brazil runs through the federal invalidation case, not through any more state-court injunctions.

Spribe went to Pernambuco for an injunction and came away with a judgment against it. The appeal, if it comes, will be fought with a suspended trademark.