Southern California Public Radio is opposing an application for the trademark Airtime, an in-flight Wi-Fi service, on the grounds that it is too similar to AirTalk, the trademarked name of an SCPR talk show.
SCPR filed the opposition April 5 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office against the application filed Dec. 1 by Global Eagle Entertainment Inc., an in-flight entertainment company.
“The services for which Applicant seeks registration of the AIRTIME mark are identical or closely related to the services with which SCPR has used its AIRTALK mark and for which SCPR owns a valid federal trademark registration,” the complaint said.
It is likely “to cause confusion, mistake, and/or deception, causing harm to SCPR,” the station argued.
The station says it has used the AirTalk name since 1985 and trademarked it in 2001.