Northwest Airlines insists it has exclusive trademark rights to the word Northwest. The airline is going after GoNorthwest.com, which provides tourist information on the Pacific Northwest. Originally, they insisted owner Jack High shut down, then they moderated their response to merely giving up trademark rights and not expanding.
High registered his trademark, which looks nothing like Northwest Airlines, after someone copied his site and launched go-northwest.com. The dispute is over the word. Northwest’s lawyer insists their trademark is for the word Northwest, which would be news to the over 10,557 companies in Washington state alone that use the word, as well as over 400 active trademark applications or registrations including the word Northwest or NW.
We tend to agree with Garland Pollard, of brandlandusa.com. To keep a trademark, you have to use it. Enjoy the video above of Delta repainting a Northwest 747-400 in its livery. If that is besides the point in your opinion, Delta proudly announces its rebranding of Northwest. Just yesterday, they blogged that over 40% of mainline aircraft are repainted. On March 30th, all Northwest frontline employees donned the Delta uniform.
Pollard mentions many ways the brand name could be preserved, which is an asset. They could rename a wholly-owned subsidiary Northwest, as other airlines have done to recall past associations. They could use it to refer to a type of service or lounge. US Airways paints old logos to the right of its door, and has created special livery planes in tribute to them.
For Delta, they are simultaneously eliminating a popular brand, but they are wasting money trying to protect it from an organization that isn’t actually threatening it. Does anyone else wonder what they are thinking with this? We’ll miss Northwest Airlines as a brand, even though it was not an airline we spent much time on, but it still holds a special place in our hearts. Does it in Delta’s?