American Airlines Suing Feds Over Uncreative Logo
American Airlines Suing Feds Over Uncreative Logo
American Airlines has filed a suite against U.S. Copyright Office after the department has refused, on numerous occasions, to provide the new logo copyright protection. The airline has disagreed with the decision before when it has repeatedly been denied by the department for its lack of creativity.
According to Bloomberg:
The logo, introduced in 2013 amid a major rebranding by the company, depicts an abstract white eagle’s head poking through a diagonal band with blue on top and red on the bottom. It was first denied copyright protection in 2016, then again in 2017 and earlier this year when the airline sought reconsideration. “While the bar for creativity is low, it does exist and the work cannot glide over even its low heights,” the agency said in January.
In January 2018, the Copyright Office told American Airlines, in what it billed as the final decision on the matter, “A mere simplistic arrangement of non-protectable elements does not demonstrate the level of creativity necessary to warrant protection.
As stated above, the logo has been in place since 2013, when the airline went through a rebranding. As many of you probably remember, this was the old logo for American Airlines:
And this is the logo that has been unable to receive protection:
This is the logo that AA references in the lawsuit that has received protection from the Copyright Office (NFL’s Vince Lombardi Trophy):
I have to say here that I can kind of see American’s point on this one. I am not an attorney, but just form the perspective of somebody who has seen other logos and items that have received protection from the Copyright Office, I can honestly see AA’s point that there are logos that are equivalent or even less creative than the one AA has put out. That being said, I don’t know why the Copyright Office would be specifically targeting AA.
