Disney files trademark lawsuit against the registration and the use of "SABACC"

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Disney has filed a federal trademark lawsuit to block a mobile app based on a “Star Wars” card game. The suit seeks to cancel the registration of the mark and bar the company from using the term-Sabacc. It also seeks punitive and statutory damages, in addition to disgorgement of profits and attorneys’ fees.

The card game-Sabacc was first referenced in “The Empire Strikes Back”( Star Wars Episode). In subsequent “Star Wars” novels, it is revealed that Lando Calrissian lost the Millennium Falcon to Han Solo in a Sabacc game. Sabacc has appeared in various Lucasfilm-approved forms since then, including as a card game.

In 2015, a company called Ren Ventures began selling Sabacc as a mobile game. The company also obtained trademark registration for the term in 2016. In 2017, Disney challenged the registration, arguing it should be cancelled because it was likely to create customer confusion.

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Arguments

·        Ren Ventures - Lucasfilm never bothered to trademark “Sabacc.” On books and games where the term “Sabacc” appeared, Lucasfilm used the “Star Wars” trademark to distinguish it The rare, intermittent appearance of ‘Sabacc’ on the packaging for games about ‘Star Wars’… does not render ‘Sabacc’ a trademark for these games.

·        Disney- The Sabacc mobile game exactly mimics the rules of the fictional game from the Star Wars universe. “There can be no question that Defendants’ mobile game is intended to, and does, copy and appropriate Plaintiffs’ Sabacc game in order to capitalize on the goodwill of the Sabacc Mark and the Star Wars franchise,” the lawsuit states.