Nice try Rex
From the SMH:
Dirty dog airline business when one airline tries to steal another airline's branded seats. Now Rex has to pay both their own and Virgin's legal and court costs Rex has failed in a cheeky attempt to trademark for itself the term “Economy X” first used by Virgin Australia to describe extra legroom seats. The dispute blew up when Rex started leasing former Virgin Australia Boeing 737 jets without making any changes to the interior cabins. It’s understood Virgin Australia asked Rex to remove the Economy X branding on relevant seats, but Rex refused on the basis its rival had not formally trademarked the term. To make matters worse, Rex then applied to the Registrar of Trade Marks to claim ownership of Economy X for itself, which would have had ramifications for Virgin Australia’s own use of the branding. Virgin Australia opposed Rex’s application, arguing it created the brand in 2016 and launched it in marketing and sales from February 2017. Rex’s case disputed Virgin Australia’s claim of ownership over Economy X, saying it was a “description of class of service, or seat class”. “Evidence is provided in support of this view, including a website dated 2016, showing that Qantas uses the letter ‘X’ as the class code for flight rewards/award bookings in economy class,” said the ruling by Registrar of Trade Marks’ delegate Nicholas Butson. Rex also asserted that even if the brand was a trademark owned by Virgin Australia, it was an unregistered trademark and the intellectual property rights were vague, due to the airline’s change of ownership in 2020. Mr Butson’s ruling said a trademark did not necessarily have to be registered for ownership to be established. He said ownership could instead be established through “authorship and use of a trademark”. “This ground does not require (Virgin Australia) to establish that it is the owner, merely that there is an earlier claim to ownership based on use by someone other than the (Rex),” wrote Mr Butson. He found Virgin Australia had provided sufficient evidence of its authorship of Economy X and use of the trademark before Rex. Costs were awarded against Rex in the matter. A Virgin Australia spokesman said they were “pleased with the decision which found the airline had clearly established use of the Economy X mark over the past six years”. “Virgin Australia’s Economy X product was an Australian-first when it was launched in 2017, providing our economy guests with extra legroom and an enhanced travel experience,” he said. Virgin Australia’s application for the term to be trademarked, had since been accepted by the Australian Trade Mark Office. A Rex spokesman declined to comment on the ruling other than to point out the airline had adopted the term “Rextra” seating for the rows previously designated Economy X. Rex made the decision to expand its network to major city routes when there was some doubt whether Virgin Australia would recover from financial collapse in April 2020. As a result of the administration, Virgin Australia underwent a major fleet reduction, which led to Rex being able to lease a number of Boeing 737-800s at bargain-basement rates. |
They are a disgrace. Nothing new. Behaviour on point.
Virgin should also ask them to remove the Virgin unique purple/red/grey headrest colour palette, and the purple divider. Go them one more I say. Amazed the yanks have let these fools get away with that for this long. |
Yes I did read this yesterday. What would something like this cost Rex?
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Originally Posted by SHVC
(Post 11432126)
Yes I did read this yesterday. What would something like this cost Rex?
more free publicity for REX being bullied by the big end of town is their spin. Sharpie master of this. |
more free publicity for REX being bullied by the big end of town is their spin. Sharpie master of this. |
Originally Posted by neville_nobody
(Post 11432142)
Exactly. It will be that followed by ‘Qantas are poaching all my pilots’. Of course no journalist ever points out that he’s a big believer in free markets and liberty whilst complaining that people are resigning for 2-3x increase in salary, they just run the poaching headline.
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Standard Rex affair, Dinosaurs at the top. Non creative or innovative.
What is next? Mid Seat Raffle: First prize, Scones and Clotted cream. |
Originally Posted by neville_nobody
(Post 11432142)
Of course no journalist ever points out that he’s a big believer in free markets
I guess a small gift was the least he could do….. |
It's pretty disappointing to hear about Rex trying to steal Virgin Australia's branding for Economy X. I can understand why Virgin Australia would want to protect their brand, especially since they were the first ones to come up with it back in 2016. It's good to see that the Registrar of Trade Marks ruled in Virgin Australia's favor and awarded them costs in the matter. It's also interesting that Rex has now decided to call their extra legroom seating "Rextra" instead. I guess it just goes to show how competitive the airline industry can be.
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They agreed with the previous NSW state government that they would create 1200 new direct jobs by June 2024, and got tens of millions in taxpayer grants as part of the jobs plus program, which they are using to buy a new 737 simulator and new hangers.
The only thing is, they haven’t done anywhere near that, and barely moved the needle in creating any jobs let alone doubling the Rex headcount. Do we get our cash back if they don’t create any jobs? The South Australian tourism body successfully took Tiger to court when they accepted tax payer grants, then closed the base and kept the cash. |
Originally Posted by PoppaJo
(Post 11434822)
They agreed with the previous NSW state government that they would create 1200 new direct jobs by June 2024, and got tens of millions in taxpayer grants as part of the jobs plus program, which they are using to buy a new 737 simulator and new hangers.
The only thing is, they haven’t done anywhere near that, and barely moved the needle in creating any jobs let alone doubling the Rex headcount. Do we get our cash back if they don’t create any jobs? The South Australian tourism body successfully took Tiger to court when they accepted tax payer grants, then closed the base and kept the cash. |
Originally Posted by jookisa
(Post 11434592)
It's pretty disappointing to hear about Rex trying to steal Virgin Australia's branding for Economy X. I can understand why Virgin Australia would want to protect their brand, especially since they were the first ones to come up with it back in 2016. It's good to see that the Registrar of Trade Marks ruled in Virgin Australia's favor and awarded them costs in the matter. It's also interesting that Rex has now decided to call their extra legroom seating "Rextra" instead. I guess it just goes to show how competitive the airline industry can be.
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Did I miss something or did VA only register Economy X on March 11 2021 while REX already had 3 ex VA 737s with Economy X branding in fleet
Did VA really just forget to take a trade mark out on Economy X until it was almost too late I think that VA were very lucky to get away with the win.... BTW Economy EX is available.... The below looks like a bit of a rush job Date Description 26 Apr 2023 Application Accepted correspondence sent 26 Apr 2023 IP Right has been Examined 26 Apr 2023 IP Right Acceptance Published Trade mark details » 26 Apr 2023 Status change to Accepted 24 Apr 2023 Examination Response Received 20 Apr 2023 Adverse Report (Examination) correspondence sent 20 Apr 2023 IP Right has been Examined 19 Apr 2023 Deferral of Acceptance Ended Notice correspondence sent 19 Apr 2023 Terminate Deferral 15 Mar 2022 General Correspondence sent 15 Mar 2022 Deferment of Acceptance More 09 Mar 2022 Deferral of Acceptance Requested 10 Feb 2022 International Registration Received 18 Jan 2022 General Request Initiated 25 Nov 2021 General Request Initiated 19 Mar 2021 IP Right has been Examined 15 Mar 2021 Examination expedited 12 Mar 2021 Awaiting examination 12 Mar 2021 IP Right Filed correspondence sent 11 Mar 2021 IP Right Filed Published Trade mark details » 11 Mar 2021 Status change to Published 11 Mar 2021 Status change to Filed 11 Mar 2021 Minimum Filing Requirements Considered 11 Mar 2021 IP Right Goods and Services Items updated More 11 Mar 2021 IP right goods and service classes updated More 11 Mar 2021 Status change to Received 11 Mar 2021 Trade mark representation updated 11 Mar 2021 Application Received 11 Mar 2021 Expedite Work Initiated |
Originally Posted by Deano969
(Post 11434899)
Did I miss something or did VA only register Economy X on March 11 2021 while REX already had 3 ex VA 737s with Economy X branding in fleet
Did VA really just forget to take a trade mark out on Economy X until it was almost too late I think that VA were very lucky to get away with the win.... BTW Economy EX is available.... The below looks like a bit of a rush job Date Description 26 Apr 2023 Application Accepted correspondence sent 26 Apr 2023 IP Right has been Examined 26 Apr 2023 IP Right Acceptance Published Trade mark details » 26 Apr 2023 Status change to Accepted 24 Apr 2023 Examination Response Received 20 Apr 2023 Adverse Report (Examination) correspondence sent 20 Apr 2023 IP Right has been Examined 19 Apr 2023 Deferral of Acceptance Ended Notice correspondence sent 19 Apr 2023 Terminate Deferral 15 Mar 2022 General Correspondence sent 15 Mar 2022 Deferment of Acceptance More 09 Mar 2022 Deferral of Acceptance Requested 10 Feb 2022 International Registration Received 18 Jan 2022 General Request Initiated 25 Nov 2021 General Request Initiated 19 Mar 2021 IP Right has been Examined 15 Mar 2021 Examination expedited 12 Mar 2021 Awaiting examination 12 Mar 2021 IP Right Filed correspondence sent 11 Mar 2021 IP Right Filed Published Trade mark details » 11 Mar 2021 Status change to Published 11 Mar 2021 Status change to Filed 11 Mar 2021 Minimum Filing Requirements Considered 11 Mar 2021 IP Right Goods and Services Items updated More 11 Mar 2021 IP right goods and service classes updated More 11 Mar 2021 Status change to Received 11 Mar 2021 Trade mark representation updated 11 Mar 2021 Application Received 11 Mar 2021 Expedite Work Initiated |
Originally Posted by PoppaJo
(Post 11434822)
The South Australian tourism body successfully took Tiger to court when they accepted tax payer grants, then closed the base and kept the cash.
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Originally Posted by Chris2303
(Post 11434933)
Did they win and if so, did they get the money?
In regards to Rex, and Covid rorts aside, they have stated to the Government that they will double its workforce by mid next year. I don't think anyone believed that Rex could double its headcount in a few short years, even over a medium term. If they said, they couldn't create those jobs, they wouldn't have got the cash, it was specifically a Jobs Plus grant, not build me a free 737 sim grant. Politicians are just so gullible, the ribbon cutting opportunity with the press is the most important bit right? Tiger wanted 30 aircraft in a couple of years, took 13 years to get just over half that. Bonza came out with some large figure also, Rex have stated they wanted 30 aircraft also, still at 6 correct? Governments love it, they get to see what those fantasy fleet numbers do on paper so start chucking money around. Pity it never eventuates though. |
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