[Peetwo]

United we conquer and divided we fall?    

For those of you wanting to know the background to this bunfight...

Via Oz Flying:

AOPA and RAAus in Dispute over Slogan
21 August 2018
Comments 6 Comments
     12
Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus) and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) look set to do battle over the use of the phrase "Freedom to Fly".

The dispute erupted last week after it emerged that RAAus was granted a trade mark registration for the slogan on 27 June this year. AOPA claims it has used the term for several decades.

According to AOPA CEO Ben Morgan, RAAus sent AOPA a letter last week stating that AOPA would need to pay a licence fee if they continued to use the slogan.

"Ironically, it now seems that our 'Freedom to Fly' is no longer free, but available to the highest bidder," Morgan said in his reply to RAAus.

"The AOPA Australia entirely rejects the RAAus proposal that would force our association to enter a licensing agreement with your organisation for the use of the statement 'Freedom to Fly'.

"That the use of this statement could be restricted, controlled, licensed and used by the RAAus for material gain makes a mockery of its meaning to thousands of aircraft owners and pilots nationwide and casts great shame on the RAAus management."

In defending the trademark move, RAAus CEO Michael Linke said they registered the trademark in order to protect it for all non-profit aviation organisations.

" ... we [have] registered the phrase as a public effort to make sure that it can be widely used in the public sphere by all non-profit organisations engaged in the aviation space, as it has been used liberally in the past by so many," Linke said in a reply to AOPA.

"We agree with that principle and welcome expressing the value and meaning of this phrase in our industry. It may be used openly and without limit by any non-profit aviation organisation. As previously conveyed we encourage AOPA to use the phrase freely. RAAus will do so too, and supports others who seek the freedom to fly to do the same - freely, openly and without restriction."

Sport Aircraft Association of Australia president Tony White has come out in support of the AOPA position in an open letter to RAAus.

"The actions to trademark AOPA Australia's 'Freedom to Fly' slogan is viewed as aggressive and does nothing to foster positive working relationships between the RAAus and its peer associations," White said.

"In light of the fact that AOPA Australia, SAAA and others sought to openly invite the RAAus to the General Aviation Summit in July, we question the judgement in pursuing this trademark."

RAAus has said that when the trade mark expires on 27 November 2027, they have no intention to renew it.

AOPA Australia is believed to have access to an intellectual property solicitor and intends to act to have the trade mark registration revoked.

Under Section 84 of the Trade Marks Act 1995, the registrar may revoke registration of a trade mark "if he or she is satisfied that:

                     (a)  the trade mark should not have been registered, taking account of all the circumstances that existed when the trade mark became registered (whether or not the Registrar knew then of their existence); and
                     (b)  it is reasonable to revoke the registration, taking account of all the circumstances."

Among the circumstances to be taken into account is any use of the trade mark. The legislation also makes it clear that the registrar is under no obligation to consider revoking a trade mark.

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/lates...HhaZJLs.99

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Some comments:

Mike Borgelt • 13 hours ago
I have to side with AOPA on this. They at least, aren't a CASA subcontractor like RAAus is.

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Concerned RAA Member • a day ago

With all of the positive effort and work that AOPA has been doing across Australia, I am really amazed that RAA have wanted to attack them like this. I was recently at Bathurst when AOPA came to town to help out our airport community, which includes a significant number of RAA aircraft owners and pilots - RAA was nowhere to be seen! Ben and his team are really passionate about ensuring that our industry has a future and he was openly inclusive of the RAA participants. How RAA can claim to be Freedom to Fly when they refuse to get involved on issues that count is sad. Pretty clear that they are seeing this as a property grab and trying to hijack the growing visibility and value of AOPA's community efforts. I fly both GA and RAA and I attend briefings and meetings of both organisations and I must say that I dont see AOPA attacking RAA publicly. AOPA from what I read and see is clearly focused on advocating for total industry success and is taking on the regulator, airports and big-government for our freedom. But, having been listening and reading much of what our RAA leadership has been putting out lately, we seem hell bent on bad mouthing GA and projecting this false image that we are the answer to all of the industry's problems, which is just patently untrue. RAA is great, because it gives us hobby pilots a place to exist with simple rules and low cost - we are recreational its in our name. Our organisation is supposed to be about fun, but more and more we are being driven towards complexity, cost and excessive regulation. Our management now appear to be more interested in cuddling up to CASA and being seen with politicians and with this comes more and more involvement by the regulator in our membership affairs. In fact, when I think about it, our membership has never really been asked for its vote on where we would like to go. This whole Freedom to Fly debacle is kind of like the whole Part 149 issue, in that as members we have been thrust into it without awareness or our consent. It seems that more and more important issues are being thrust onto us as members, asking for forgiveness not permission.

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Frank Andrewartha • 2 days ago
I am a member of RAA and AOPA and I am most disturbed by
what I am hearing from RAA. This a time where we need industry cohesion and RAA
are seem to be charting a course for a very narrow interest (the Exec
management). Since the RAA elections are on it's time to start talking to the
board nominees and hearing their views. A hysterical backlash is not required
but a strong light on the operation is. The AOPA is known as the “freedom to
fly” pressure group and is better positioned to act as the pointy end of a GA peak
body. The RAA should do what it’s best at. Representing members and not the
apparent mission creep we are seeing now.(Signed in under my name)

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Monkey & Rabbit • 2 days ago
As an AOPA member, I see no problem with our association defending its brand and messaging. Quite a low-blow from the RAAus! You would think RAAus would be better off spending its member resources on productive activities, like getting its CTA and 750KG increase, rather than wasting it like this!

MTF...P2