American Airlines, Inc., a major American airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, has recently entered a legal dispute with Delta Air Lines (commonly referred to as Delta), one of the major airlines of the United States. The carrier has sued its rival alleging Trademark Infringement, over the word “Flagship.”
As per the World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR), American Airlines (AA) filed the lawsuit against Delta at the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas on 20th December 2019. In its lawsuit, the airline has accused its competitor of using the terms “FLAGSHIP,” “Flagship,” and “flagship” out of turn. It has also claimed that Delta uses these terms for marketing its airport lounges and services.
Although it may seem that the phrases are quite general for promoting a brand or business in the United States; however, AA has already trademarked the term along with several other phrases and has been using the same for promoting its products since the 1930s. Even today, the company promotes its premium services, including its first and business class offerings, with the same term.
The filing of the trademark infringement lawsuit states that Delta is using the phrase for promoting its products that are way too similar to the ones for which AA has trademarked it. AA also claimed that Delta has even begun selling its flight tickets by referring to the term flagship while describing premium interiors on its services. Furthermore, AA believes that some of Delta’s prime marketing strategies include convincing customers to choose Delta over American Airlines, along with attempting to persuade loyal American customers to switch their loyalty to Delta.
American Airlines now wants a conclusion of willful trademark infringement followed by the monetary damages and a permanent injunction. The firm has been including Flagship lounges in its premium services since 1998. As it has received Trademark Protection for various variations of the term flagship, it has taken legal action against Delta to safeguard its decades-long investment in its widely-known brand. Additionally, AA is also looking forward to preventing its customers from getting confused when Delta uses the term flagship to sell its products.