Friday, January 22, 2016

Is Pan Am Coming Back?

Is the vintage Pan American World Airways making a return? Maybe, according to recent trademark applications filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Pan Am Airways, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, recently filed two federal trademark applications for the stylized Pan Am trademarks shown below.

The company filed the top design on January 15th and the bottom on January 18th. Both applications were filed in Class 039 for "Air transport; Air transport and storage of goods; Air transport services; Air transportation; Airline ticket reservation service."

Does this mean the Pan Am airline will soon be operating again? Both applications were filed on an intent-to-use basis, which means the company is not using these trademarks in commerce yet but has a bona fide intention to do so in the near future. Thus, it's not a certainty but it does mean this company is making some sort of plan to use these trademarks in conjunction with air transport services sometime soon.

However, it appears the company used trademark411.com to file these applications without an attorney. That's a bit strange for a sophisticated airline.

Interestingly, another company, Pan Am World Airways, Inc., filed an application for a similar mark (shown below) with an attorney. That mark was also filed in Class 039 for "Air transportation of passengers and freight" and was filed in February 2010 on an intent-to-use basis. The applicant has requested and received multiple extensions to file the final Statement of Use form showing the mark actually being used in commerce (which is required before the mark can actually register).
This applicant owns two other registrations for PAN AM as it relates to transportation by rail. Unfortunately for Pan Am Airways, LLC, there will be a conflict between the applications it just filed and this application due to the similarity of the marks and the use on the exact same services. Since Pan Am World Airways, Inc. filed its application well before Pan Am Airways, LLC, it has priority and the Trademark Office will not register Pan Am Airways, LLC's marks due to that conflict. The relationship between these two entities (if any) is unknown.

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