Real World Airline Name Rule

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joefremont
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Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Thu Jun 04, 2020 4:49 pm

One of the longest standing rules on this site, from before I was even involved, is that your not supposed to use the names or trade marks of real world airlines without there permission. This is because as a small site we don't have the legal resources to fight any sort of action that an airline with lots of lawyers could bring against us.

When you sign up or ask for a name change you will see this notice.
Notice: FSAirlines not allow the use of the names or trademarks of active real world Airlines and can include other transportation names i, Airline Groups or other Airline related companies for Virtual Airlines on this site.
This includes both the airlines and the airline group names and the airlines parent company name and can include other transportation companies including government agencies if the name is close enough. Adding VA or Virtual or minor misspellings do not change thing, looking at it your intent is as important as the actual text. What you call yourself outside of FSA I don't really care, but on the platform you need to follow the rules.

It some times takes some judgement, lots of airlines want to be 'United', but there is a United Airlines based in the States, so 'British United' or 'UNITED VIRTUAL MEXICO' are OK because they are not trying to be the real world united but 'United USA' is too close. Likewise there are often attempts to be 'Virgin something' and of course there are lots of real world Virgin companies so no go.

My normal test of is something valid is just to Google search it, if an airline or travel related company shows up on the first page or two its not going to get approved.

We do allow the use of airlines that are no longer in operation as long as they have been out of operation for at least three years, we wait that long in case they come back.

There is some automatic screening when you create an airline, but its not perfect and when you as for a new name then I review it before it goes into effect, but in general I don't go looking for violators, but when I do come across them I try to contact them an ask them to change there name but if they are not responsive or resist changing I am sometimes forced to change it for them.

There are VA's on the system that have names that may appear to violate this rule but often they have received permission, but there are some where the permission was given to an admin who is no longer on the platform or that have flown under the radar for so long its clear the real airline is not going to complain so we will allow them to continue. So if a VA has had a name for more than 3 years I won't ask them to change it but less than that if it comes to my attention I will ask them to change there name.

I am always surprised on how stubborn and angry some people get when I ask them to change or decline there new name, and the more they insist the less willing to compromise I get. Sometimes they will even send faked 'certificates' trying to show they have permission and I have been at this long enough to know what the correspondence from the airline is going to look like when i get something that is an obvious forgery the conversation ends.

I do admit I sometime get annoyed at VA's that are continually changing there names and sometimes will refuse just because they have done too many times for my liking.

While I said I don't go looking for them in researching for this post I found a number of airlines who are in violation and I will be asking them to change there names.

Update 11 Nov, 2021: I have been struggling with this issue for some time and have seen too many VA's trying to pass off fake permission documents that for me are very difficult to verify. So unless you have an large existing VA outside of FSA that is already using that name, permission in FSA will not be approved.

I am not going force anyone to change there name if they were granted approval before November 2021 or if they have been using the name for more than three years. There may be rare situations where I will grant the use of a name or trademark but complaining that process is unfair or why are they allowed to use the name when we are not are both grounds for rejecting the use of a real world name.

Edit 2023-11-03: In addition to using the names of real world airlines, we are also going to prohibit names that imply sexual content, illegal or other inappropriate activities, as well as the names of other well known companies or organizations, even if they are not aviation related. This is totally at the discretion of the administrator, there will be no complaining.
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WillB
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by WillB » Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:59 pm

This makes sense. I mean it is so much more fun creating your own Virtual Airline from scratch. It opens the door to what you can do. Is there any plan to purge inactive VA's? I have noticed when looking for partnerships there a very large number of these.
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luis969275
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by luis969275 » Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:51 am

Sounds reasonable. But what about ceased airlines that literally don't exists anymore...?
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Thu Jun 18, 2020 2:20 pm

luis969275 wrote:
Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:51 am
Sounds reasonable. But what about ceased airlines that literally don't exists anymore...?
We do allow the use of airline names that are no longer in operation, but we do require they be closed for three years, to be sure they are not coming back.
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:40 pm

To repeat the update I made to the rule above.

Update 11 Nov, 2021: I have been struggling with this issue for some time and have seen too many VA's trying to pass off fake permission documents that for me are very difficult to verify. So unless you have an large existing VA outside of FSA that is already using that name, permission in FSA will not be approved.

I am not going force anyone to change there name if they were granted approval before November 2021 or if they have been using the name for more than three years. There may be rare situations where I will grant the use of a name or trademark but complaining that process is unfair or why are they allowed to use the name when we are not are both grounds for rejecting the use of a real world name.
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Wed Feb 08, 2023 11:30 pm

We seam to have a rash of airlines asking for name changes where there requested name is a real world airline. One person asked for "Iraqi airways" three times with different variations of virtual at the end, and then asked for "Fly Baghdad' which is also a real world airline and I lost it and deleted there airline and pilot account, that was probably an over reaction but they had not flown any flight so there was no great loss.

But it made me think and I made a change so that your airline may not request a new name until after the airline has flown at least five flights. Once you have received a name change you must fly at least five more flights before you can ask for another.

In addition from now on, if I see an airline that I believe to be using the name of an active real world airline and the VA has not flown at least five flights or purchased a premium account I am just going to change it to a default name ("Virtual Airline NN") without warning them first.

this should at least cut down on requests from people who are not serious.
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Wed Feb 15, 2023 5:42 pm

Additional Update: I know this rule started because we don't want to get sued by an airline and that is still true, but there are a lot of airlines out there who either small and don't have resources or are in countries that don't have access to the legal system in either the US or Europe, but we are still going to give those small airlines the same level of respect we are going to give a large European or American airline.
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Sat Sep 02, 2023 8:30 pm

After a lull we seam to have a rash of airlines requesting real world names again. I have started assessing fines of 5m v$ each time an airline requests a name that is obviously linked to a real world airline.

I am also working on an update to the name request logic so that when ever an airline requests a name there will be a non refundable 'processing' fee that will start at 1m and go up based on how many times the VA has asked for name changes, that will include accepted and rejected requests. If the name chance is accepted there will then be additional 'rebranding expenses' which I am not sure how much that would be but assume how much it would cost a real world airline to repaint there entire fleet plus advertising to announce the name change and you have an idea.
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Fri Oct 20, 2023 11:05 pm

I just updated the website with some improved features for handling name change, including some better detection of similar names and some fees for asking for a name change.
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Re: Real World Airline Name Rule

Post by joefremont » Fri Nov 03, 2023 5:21 pm

I see there is someone who is creating a number of airlines using trial accounts where the names are all related to companies involved in pornography or other adult entertainment. While this was not expressly prohibited before, I think I am going to have to put a stop to it. so I have updated the rules to include that.
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