Spribe has won an interim injunction in London against the developers of a same-named crash game. The main trial has been expedited to October 2027.
The High Court in London has barred the developers of a rival crash game called Aviator from launching it on new platforms in Colombia, Romania and Serbia. The court acted at the request of Spribe, the Estonian studio behind the better-known game of the same name. Mr Justice Tappin handed down the judgment on 6 November 2026, after a four-day hearing in October. The order is interim: it applies only until trial and is not a final ruling on who is entitled to the Aviator name.
Background: two games called Aviator
Aviator is a crash game, a format in which a multiplier rises until it “crashes” at a random point and players try to cash out first. Spribe’s version has been on the market for several years. According to the judgment, it first launched in Serbia in December 2019, in Colombia in June 2020 and in Romania in December 2020. From 2023 onwards, the sums wagered on it in each of those countries have been in the hundreds of millions of euros a year, the judge said, although the exact figures are confidential.
The other side of the case is a group the judgment calls “the Aviator Parties”. They are Aviator LLC, a Georgian company, and two Maltese companies, Aviator Studio Ltd and Aviator Studio Holding Ltd, together with two further parties. They brought the original claim, case IL-2024-000151 in the Business and Property Courts. Spribe is the defendant and has counterclaimed. The dispute also involves earlier judgments from Georgia. On 2 October 2026, the Court of Appeal ruled on how English courts should treat those judgments, reversing an earlier decision by Tappin J.
The UK is already covered. An interim injunction granted by Sir Anthony Mann on 26 September 2025 is in force there. The new application concerned other countries.
What the court ordered
Spribe asked for an interim injunction covering Canada, Colombia, Romania, Serbia and Italy. It also asked for advance notice of any launches elsewhere.
Canada and Italy were dealt with by agreement. According to the judgment, the Aviator Parties’ game has not launched in Canada. In Italy, a demo version was available, but it has been withdrawn following an interim injunction from a Maltese court based on Spribe’s EU trade mark registration. The Aviator Parties offered to give 28 days’ written notice of any launch or marketing in Canada or Italy, and Spribe accepted.
For Colombia, Romania and Serbia, the judge granted an injunction. Until further order, the Aviator Parties must not launch or otherwise offer to the public, or encourage or assist anyone else to do so, a crash game targeted at those countries “under or by reference to the name AVIATOR” or a logo “colourably similar” to the versions attached to the order.
The order has an important exception. It does not stop third parties from continuing to offer the game on any website, app or platform where they were already offering it on or before 3 July 2026, and the Aviator Parties may keep supplying those platforms. The judge said this “best maintains the status quo ante” while limiting the “irremediable prejudice” either side could suffer. Spribe must give a cross-undertaking in damages, extended to affected third parties, including the Aviator Parties’ affiliates.
The Aviator Parties must also give Spribe’s solicitors, Bird & Bird, a list of the platforms that carried their game in the three countries on 3 July 2026, on an “external eyes only” basis. The judge gave them liberty to apply to vary the order for Serbia, where Aviator LLC holds a registration for the AVIATOR word mark.
Spribe also obtained a notification order. The Aviator Parties must give at least two weeks’ notice, to the best of their knowledge and belief, before their game launches in any of 28 “Further Territories” in Europe, Africa and Central and South America. They must also require that notice from the aggregators and operators they contract with.
Why the judge granted it
The judge looked at evidence of confusion in the trade. He described a South East Asian aggregator that in early 2026 advertised the Aviator Parties’ game using Spribe’s aeroplane logo. He also noted gambling websites that had put Spribe’s logo on the tile for the rival game. He said there was no evidence that the Aviator Parties had encouraged this. He also said there was “no evidence from consumers” of confusion, although he accepted that such evidence was unlikely to reach Spribe.
Even so, he concluded that “if there are two crash games both called Aviator and using very similar logos … it is very likely that there will be confusion between the two”. He stressed that any view expressed at this stage is provisional.
The judgment also records the scale of the rival game. According to evidence summarised by the court, it took its first bets in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Serbia and South Africa in mid-2025, and in Romania in October 2025. Volumes were small compared with Spribe’s game, except in Mexico by early 2026.
Who is affected
The practical effect falls mostly on the B2B supply chain. Aggregators and operators that were not offering the Aviator Parties’ game in Colombia, Romania or Serbia by 3 July 2026 should not expect to receive it for those markets while the order stands. Platforms already carrying it can continue. The judgment notes that game suppliers often do not know which downstream sites carry their titles. That is why the order includes the platform list and the notice obligations.
Players in those countries can still find both games on platforms covered by the exception. Nothing in the ruling decides which game is legitimately entitled to the name.
What happens next
At Spribe’s request, the judge expedited the main trial to October 2027; otherwise it would have been listed in early 2028. A separate trial of preliminary issues will take place in April 2027. The judge refused Spribe permission to add claims for the 28 Further Territories, finding that they were not adequately particularised. Its new foreign passing off and unfair competition claims can cover at most the nine “Combined Territories”: Canada, Colombia, Ghana, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Romania, Serbia and South Africa. The parties are now drafting the final wording of the order.
The case is ongoing. Neither side has been found liable, and the interim order can be varied or discharged by the court.
Sources
- https://www.11southsquare.com/wp-content/uploads/Aviator-v-Spribe-approved-public-judgment.pdf
- https://igamingbusiness.com/legal-compliance/uk-high-court-interim-protection-spribe-aviator-game-dispute/
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