Northern Pacific Airways Rebrands As New Pacific Airlines

Seriously what is this carrier all about

Trademarks have a "use-it-or-lose-it" aspect, and the Northern Pacific merged around 1970 with 3 other railroads to form Burlington Northern, which in turn merged into BNSF almost 30 years ago. I suspect that's why the NPA folks thought the trademark had lapsed.

But avgeeks have nothing on "foamers" and the railroads make a respectable amount of money licensing the liveries of their predecessor roads to model train makers. Thus BNSF runs a single locomotive with a sticker of the Northern Pacific logo ( https://heritageunits.com/locomotive/detail/BNSF6026) to keep the trademark alive.

I suspect similar logic is behind AA's heritage liveries; I guess United isn't worried about someone launching a new Continental and Delta isn't worried about a new Northwest or Western.

"New Pacific Airways." Sounds like the fake airline name from any number of action movies in the 90's.

Even "Columbia Airlines" sounds more authentic. Anyhow, it's yet another sign that this venture is going nowhere - aside from bankruptcy court.

Ikr! It sounds like an airline name straight out of Die Hard.

Spot on about the reasoning. BSNF is very protective of its trademark and those of its predecessor railroads. They have even repainted current locomotives into "heritage units" - like AA does - featuring the names of the processors, like Northern Pacific. Several years ago there were even legal negotiations over using these marks on model trains.

BSNF has been watching very closely...

Fake airline, continuing to do fake airline things.

Or one of those 70s Airport movies

They should've chosen a name from a location in the Northern Pacific that is relevant to them. Should've chosen the name Alaska Airlines

I like that they feel the need to say, 'Offers flights globally, including California and Nevada.'
Like, yeah, sure, both of those are on the globe, but not quite sure that makes it 'global'.

They could have just decided to save the thousand dollars a plane that painting another 5 letters would cost.

Not very original, ghost pacific would have been much more apt.

"Ocean Pacific" would have really nailed that

And the 'n' at the end of Ocean would let them avoid redoing the part of the 'n' on the fuselage that currently overlaps the large logo. Easier repaint.

Quite the new “global” airline. Their flights aren’t even two hours long! Laughing hard here! Laughing hard!

If they had the resolve and the funding, they (airline) could reasonably fight it out, with a plausible chance of winning, as trademark (unlike copyright) revolves around the element of "use."

They're both transport companies, but if the airline could convince a court that no one's going to confuse a transpacific airline with an interstate rail company, then it could win.

Would likely get drained in the process though, so just wasn't worth it.

Much more clear-cut case was the row between Delta Air Lines and Delta Faucets & Fixtures, over multiple trademark-related issues.

And don't ever think of using a rooster as a brand or logo or you will find yourself in court with Gallo Wine - and they ALWAYS win! Another very protective private company ! Just ask Hilton hotels when they wanted to use the Red Rooster name for restaurants chain wide.

I have full trust that this airline will be around for decades. So what will it be called when it is no longer new?

This scheme is dead in the water. PeoplExpress II revisted. Icelandair and others will never allow this to happen without a fight. They couldn’t complete 30 minute flights ONTLAS. Unofficial reports that one aircraft has already been returned to ROW for storage.

It's not just locomotives. There are probably thousands of freight cars that still bear the names of the BNSF predecessor railroads.

For the railroad knowledgeable among this group. In 1995 an LCC stated operations out of Colorado Springs under the name Western Pacific. WP was of course the name of a famed western railroad that was ultimately acquired by the Union Pacific in the early 80s. I was not aware of any attempt by UP to prevent the use of that name. WP as an airline did not last very long; it went bankrupt in 1998.
Interestingly the UP was very vicious in its attempt to prevent unlicensed use of its name and image not only by modelers but also by outfits that produced railroad calendars.

Why not just change it to North Pacific?

In 1997 when Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) announced a takeover of Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) they proposed calling the result United Bank of Switzerland.
Then a little bank with naming rights to United Bank of Switzerland popped up with a complaint - the materials for the combination of the two big banks were rapidly changed to say it would be called "UBS" as a full name; not an abbreviation.
That is the UBS that fell into the arms of Credit Suisse this year.

You’ve got the facts wrong to some degree. Hilton planned on calling the chain
GALLO ROSSO, which is why Gallo sued. Plenty of entities use rooster logos with no interference from Gallo.

BNSF = Warren Buffet / Berkshire Hathaway

There was already a “new Pacific Airlines” created in Vietnam a few years ago when Jetstar Pacific rebranded back to Pacific Airlines. Surprised they’re not also suing. Even “New Air” would’ve sounded decent. Oh wait, that’s what JetBlue was originally called. Eh, it’s not like this money laundering scheme is going to last that much longer.

Reminds me of a tongue in cheek trivia account I saw on Instagram that has fascinating factoids like “Did you know? California is smaller that the United States and Canada COMBINED!”

Well I like their livery and I think the cabins look pretty snazzy but everything else about this airline is puzzling to me.

At least this airline startup has planes and a schedule, etc