FORT WORTH, Texas — BNSF Railway has filed suit over a start-up airline’s effort to use the name “Northern Pacific.”
In a paywalled article, Bloomberg Law reports BNSF has filed suit in federal court for the Northern District of Texas against FLOAT Alaska, which is working to launch Northern Pacific Airways, a low-cost airline based in Anchorage, Alaska that plans to offer flights between the U.S. and Asia.
The website Simple Flying says BNSF has sued over trademark infringement, saying the airline must halt its efforts to registrer the Northern Pacific trademark. Northern Pacific Railway, of course, is one of BNSF’s predecessors.
Simple Flying says Northern Pacific’s plans have been upended by the closure of Russian airspace as a result of the Ukraine war, which would add hours to flight times for its four Boeing 757-200 jets. As a result, the airline is now seeking to fly between the U.S. and Mexico.
There was a Southeast airlines that was an intrastate airline. Ran from Bristol – Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis. Good service cheap fares not subject to Regulated fares since intrastate on DC-3s. CAB was not pleased at all but did get revenge. Awarded route to Southern airways. Southeast could not compete so went out of business. Fares went up under regulation with screaming all over Tennessee.
Many complaints and Southern ceased route shortly after getting it awarded for lack of patronage.
Great to see some humour today!
There was a Western Pacific Airlines which operated in the United States from 1995 until declaring bankruptcy in 1998. One of its planes, named “The Spirit of Durango” had an image of a Durango & Silverton train painted on its tail as can be seen in the following webpage:
https://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-USA6/Western-Pacific-Airlines/i-HGhWRqw/A
As a regular reader of Simply Flying, as soon as they made their announcement, I had a feeling this was coming next.
Here is one for Mr Landey If he remebers 2 local airlines that served New York and parts of the Northeast Alleghany Airlines and Mohawk Airlines A few serious crashes and other issues put both of them out of business. By the way I remember Northeast Airlines and their Yellowbird fleet. So many people today fly but very few remember there was a Golden Age of Airline Travel and there were many airlines both in the United States and worldwide. Like railfans there are a large number of airplane and airline fans also but who are looked down upon by the traveling public as strange or unusual. People travel by air but only think of the plane as a means of getting somewhere quickly but dont realize the rich history and heritage of airplanes and travel
Joseph C. Markfelder
Actually, I do not believe either went out of business. Mohawk was bought out by Alleghany in 1972 and then Allegheny changed its name to USAir in 1979 right before airline deregulation.
Both Mohawk and Alleghany were on my list at the very top of this thread. Here’s a rough sequence, I’m sure with some errors. Mohawk merged into Alleghany, which absorbed PSA, was renamed USA Air / US Airways, and absorbed Piedmont. US Airways was taken over by ??? ATA (???? if I recall) keeping the US Airways name, which was taken over by American with US Airways executives surviving to run the combined show under the American name. Something like that.
My chess buddies got some amusement out of my long story of a brief dating relationship (three days) which ended with me waving goodbye to her as she boarded a Northeast Airlines Yellowbird DC-9 at LGA. She was the younger sister of a prominent American chess player at a time (1967) when there weren’t many of those. Northeast was Delta’s first major acquisition, which (under airline regulation) wanted Northeast’s routes from New York/ Boston/ Philadelphia to Florida.
After the PRR dropped the Buffalo-Harrisburg-NY Penn sleeper, (never better than a prewar 10-5) my uncle in Olean NY flew to PHL on Allegheny out of Bradford PA in an ex-Mohawk BAC 1-11 jet. Allegheny had two crashes at Bradford 13 days apart involving CV-580 aircraft and similar weather.
The sequence was Mohawk into Allegheny, renamed USAir (too many people calling it Agony) then US Airways. It merged with Piedmont and PSA, retaining the USAirways name but PSA’s callsign “Cactus.”
Then American ate the whole thing
Don’t have to worry about anyone wanting to name their airline Union Pacific. They wouldn’t want to be known as being unreliable and not on schedule.
Lots of interesting comments here!
Now that ‘Northern Pacific’ Airways has changed their business plan and is seeking to serve the U.S./ Mexico market, maybe they should re-name the airline “Southern Pacific” ….?
How long before the Union Pacific’s legal department would be all over this?
19.96 seconds probably lol.
My late, great dog was named Conrail, my favorite railroad. But unfortunately both the dog and railroad are gone though Conrail Shared Assets exists. How about Western Air Lines? Anyone remember them?
Western, based out of
LA, main hub Salt Lake City. Delta bought WA for the SLC hub, all the LAX slots they had, and Hawaii.
Had one interesting route I thought, Anchorage to Honolulu.
Keep in mind that a “fallen flag” IP may still linger long after that carrier has been merged away in the form of equipment trusts, long term leases, and other legal instruments. Also bear in mind that Central of Georgia still exists as a paper line although a subsidiary of NS. I am sure there are other examples that exist.
The trademark issue is only whether a given name, logo, color, etc. is being actively used in commerce as a brand to identify a particular source of the goods or services on which the mark is used. If federal registration of the mark is sought, the use has to be in *interstate* commerce. Token, trivial or de minimis use is not sufficient.
Rename it “Northern Specific”!
This will be an uphill slog for BNSF, because one of the first things BN did in about 1970 was to officially cancel the federal trademark registration of “Northern Pacific,” which effectively abandoned the railroad’s property interest in the mark. Once abandoned, a trademark reverts to the public domain. The cancellation is readily visible in the records of the US Patent and Trademark Office.
It’s possible (I haven’t looked) that BN or BNSF subsequently re-adopted and re-registered “Northern Pacific,” but that is unlikely to prevail because a federal registration, and most other state law or common law rights in a trademark, depend upon continued use of the mark to identify the origin of goods or services in commerce, and except for a rapidly dwindling number of ancient boxcars still lettered with an “NP” logo, we haven’t seen any such use for decades.
BNSF has slapped predecessor logos on various freight cars ostensibly to protect their IP: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/542417/
But it still has BNSF markings so not sure if this is sufficient.
Thanks for all the comments. Mrs. L and I have settled on a new name for Burlington. We will call him Buckeye in tribute to his birthplace, which was a back alley in Columbus. We have never told Burlington that I am a U-Michigan graduate.
Here is the litany of our cats: Velcro (deceased) was born in Iowa. Burlington’s name is from a city in Iowa, but he was born in Ohio. Our littermate cats (both now deceased) Chesapeake and Ohio were born in Michigan.
Chesapeake bore a startling, almost to the last hair on her fir, to C+O’s 1984 calendar girl – they could pass for one another. However Chessie (as we called her) was born in May, 1983, making her too young to have posed for a 1984 calendar showing an adult cat. (In 1984, CSX hadn’t yet merged its constituent railroads.)
PS Glad I’m not the only aviation fan on this forum.
Ever remember Eastern, or Bob Six at Continental, or how about Capital Airlines (went to United). Bonanza, Braniff, TWA (gone to American), or People’s Express (Donald Barr unloaded it on Frank Lorenzo’s Continental).
See what a little deregulation does?
Great memories, Ian, some of which I share. Gee, Ian, you can’t possibly be as old as I am.
So I’m not the only aviation freak on these TRAINS pages.
Remember Northeast Airlines “Yellowbirds”? DC-9’s. Alternative to the dying New Haven Railroad. Competitor to the Eastern Air Shuttle, which was flown by Paul Newman in “The Verdict”, Sidney Lumet’s great 1982 movie.
Too funny. I think the latest Classic Trains had an article about flying to go train watching and the many railfans who enjoyed the various airlines almost as much as trains including David Morgan himself. Also a sidebar about a brief attempt by Kalmbach to publish a magazine for airline enthusiasts !
North Pacific Airlines should fit the bill..
Re name it “FART-AIRWAYS”, nobody will touch that one, especially if you say it fast.
Going back to comment 1.
Charles, I thought maybe you could go with just “CAT” but then realized that Caterpillar folks might come after you.
There WAS–briefly–a New York & New England Airline in 1933. Don’t know if it ever flew any planes. Don’t know if they were going to use Maltese Crosses for a herald as the NY&NE RR did. Unfortunately when the Baby Bells were created New York & New England Telephone didn’t happen, instead it was NYNEX. Remember that? At least one trade magazine article did call that regional Bell New York & New England Telephone. What could have been! I did a cartoon showing the White Phone with its twin dials, Lyman Cable (actually an AT&T line), The Ghost Call, and a system map of the Long Island & Eastern States LATA showing the Norwich Cable to New York down Lon Guyland Sound.
Thomas, I remember the quip when the Baby Bells were created with their dreadful names. The quipster said, Nynex sounds like the medicine you take when you come down with Pacific Telesis.
I vote for Boston-Maine Airways. I also once flew Canadian Pacific Airways from Prince George to Vancouver after doing the Prince George Eventually (Pacific Great Eastern–BC Railway). Tea in a china cup–nice. A day later I would be on The Canadian crossing the Rockies. 1984.
There was Southern Airway which borrowed the first name from Southern Railway of which no legal retribution occurred that I am aware.
I assume Delta owns the Southern Airway registration. But the word “Southern” is so generic that it would be hard to hold onto the trademark.
Southern is best remembered for being hijacked to Cuba in one of the more bizarre of such instances.
The merger of Southern, North Central and Hughes Airwest formed Republic Airlines. Although I can’t know this I assumed at the time that the fact all three airlines were based on the DC-9 series was a reason for the merger.
To be a little more precise, Southern and North Central merged then bought AirWest from the Howard Hughes estate. Republic in turn was bought by NorthWest. NW then was bought by Delta.
The Southern, NorthCentral, and Hughes AirWest consolidation was three airlines serving different parts of the country after deregulation. Then Northwest bought Republic wanting all Republic’s slots at MSP.
Oh what a tangled web it is.
Also Southern Airlines was involved in at least two high profile crashes, including the crash that killed the Marshall football team.
North Central (NC) was known for only painting one side of the airplane; the side facing the terminal. NC also flew Convair 580 turboprops. I recall taking a milk run from Detroit to Milwaukee to Escanaba and finally Houghton.
Was it the Union Pacific years ago that was going to sue model makers for models labeled “Union Pacific?”
Not “going to,” they most certainly did. Uncle Pete actively protects their IP.
Another brainiac years ago registered the Pennsylvania Railroad name in an attempt to extort model makers, book publishers, etc. That didn’t work out too well.
A lawyer (!) registered Pennsylvania Railroad as a Trademark and demanded money from model RR companies but soon was told the successor to Penn Central was still in business and still held all the trademarks.
When CSX was criticized for slapping a license free onto a distributer of swag like coffee cups. CSX stated that they weren’t interested in a profit from the license fee. They used the license procedure to check for the accuracy of the logotype, they didn’t want trash with their logo on it.
sorry for additional post. BNSF could have saved money by simply sending a letter offering the airline privelege to use the name for cash? It is better to make a dollar rather than sue for one.
Why did the not chose Pacific Northern Airlines?
Pacific Northern is already a trademarked airline in Canada. I think they ended as part of WardAir
I was waiting for this to happen.
Jacob I am not sure but isn’t Seaboard air now part of CSX or NS ?
In addition to Seaboard Air Line (the railroad) there was also Seaboard World Airlines, mostly cargo but they did passenger charters notably from the USA to Vietnam for US Dept. of Defense. Flying Tiger ate them and was in turn eaten by FedEx.
SAL the railroad is now part of CSX.
Yesterday we received a letter from BNSF Legal telling us that we need to rename our cat Burlington.
Here are some of the names we are considering. Your votes among these choices will be appreciated:
Northeast
North Central
Northwest Orient
Republic
Allegheny
Mohawk
Piedmont
Eastern
Continental
Braniff
National
…. and others
Love the trip down memory lane:)
And there is always the classic airline that already became a railroad, Pan Am
Frankly, I’d go with Southeastern. They weren’t big and not around for very long. But I did find them most useful.
That aside, this suit should have been brought a while ago.
I vote for TAT, (Transcontinental Air Transport,) in memory of its parent, the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Executive Jet Avation? Another Pennsy brainstorm . . . .
Executive Jet Aviation became a part of Net Jets airtaxi, the quarter share air operation.
Republic. As a former Motor City resident that is a name I haven’t heard in a awhile. In grade school we toured one of their planes on field trip to Detroit Metro. Of course, later on there was the hanger off the entrance road with the giant rendering of a Northwest Orient 747.
I’m a former Motown resident who flew Republic. My friend referred to it as “Repulsive Airlines”, a nice pun but I actually thought it a good company.
The horrific crash at DTW, blamed by some on pilot error, was it 1987???, was a Republic Airlines flight deck crew recently merged into Northwest, which took the rap. I remember the day well. It was a Sunday. I was biking into a strong headwind on Nine Mile in Southfield, seeing planes taking off from DTW toward me, in other words with a tailwind. I thought that was strange. That was before the Internet, so I didn’t get the news until reading The Freep Monday morning. A Northwest plane headed for Phoenix (a former Republic
route) bellyflopped just past the end of the runway onto the Norfolk Southern (former Wabash) track.
I remember the mural at DTW you mention. “The World is Going Our Way”.
Boston-Maine Airways? The Original of 1931, with 50-50 ownership split between the Boston & Maine and the Maine Central. Grandfathered under the CAB Act in 1938. B&M sold out in 1945 AT A PROFIT–buried in the 1946 Moody’s Manual!!
Sounds like a B-M.(ask a doctor or anyone in the medical community)
I vote Continental! My Dad used to fly on that airline.
Charles, how about Texas International for an old airline name? Sometimes known as Texas Intermittent.
Wright Airlines. Flew between Detroit City Airport and Cleveland.