Phantasialand | F. L. Y. | Vekoma Launched Flying Coaster | 2020

[Coaster Hipster]

As previously mentioned here a few months back Phantasialand have been having issues with trademarking the name 'F.L.Y.'
2 companies (a German bicycle firm + Portuguese jewellery firm) complained on the grounds of possibility of confusion with products or theirs.
http://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/016873135

Over the past year according to the EUIPO website there has been correspondence between the parties involved; presumably as the park tried to negotiate with them - but it was seemingly unsuccessful because a few days back, on the 16th November, the EUIPO issued a "notice of ground for refusal of an application".

The article referenced:
Rule 11 : Examination as to absolute grounds for refusal
(1) Where, pursuant to Article 7 of the Regulation, the trade mark may not be registered for all or any part of the goods or services applied for, the office shall notify the applicant of the grounds for refusing registration. The Office shall specify a period within which the applicant may withdraw or amend the application or submit his observations. ...'

If I'm understanding this all correctly it seems quite unlikely they will be successful in getting the name F.L.Y. trademarked.
The park have been given 2 months to amend or withdraw the application but since the issue is the name itself I doubt there's much that can be done (especially after 11 months of correspondence with the opponents) other than change the name?
So will we be seeing soon a new name for the coaster? Or will they still be able to find some way to resolve the situation?

Either way I hope its sorted soon so they can start marketing/teasing this thing!

Wouldn't there be a way to work around this by adding a little modification to the trademark application like:

"© F.L.Y. Flying Launch Coaster"
"© F.L.Y. The Steampunk Flyer"

Or anything along those lines? I'm definitely not your go-to authority regarding IP and copyright policies but wouldn't that be a reasonable compromise to said German and Portugese companies?

 

[JoshC.]

I always saw F.L.Y. as a project/working name. It's very much against the grain of how they've named their new things over the past 10 years or so, and it just sounds like such a...meh name.

I mean, if they were going to call it Fly, then fair enough, my thoughts were wrong, but still would have been underwhelming.

 

[Kalistos]

I also feel like this could actually be a good news. Project F.L.Y. is okay, but for the name of the coaster it's not very ... memorable.

 

[CSLKennyNI]

Plot twist! Some surprising developments today...

http://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/016873135

The 2 companies who opposed the trademark have had their proceedings suspended...
So not quite sure what happens next. But does it mean they can now trademark F.L.Y. after all?

 

[Fluorineer]

I'm not convinced, I think this just means that Phantasialand has withdrawn the application to trademark F.L.Y., and as a result of that, the oppositions have been suspended since there is nothing to oppose against anymore ("suspended" in a sense of the issue has been solved extrajudicially).

 

[CSLKennyNI]

^ Yeah that seems quite possible actually. Two new notices of 'Suspension of proceedings' correspondence have just appeared - directed at the applicant (Phantasialand) now.

So R.I.P. F.L.Y.??

EDIT: Update!
On PhantaFriends.de @Schlussbremse has explained the details of the refusal on the website.

"The brand F.L.Y. can not be protected because it has "insufficient distinctiveness" according to UMV Article 7 1 b).

In essence: rejected because, according to the Authority's interpretation, it is basically trying to enter a word mark in the general English word for flying.

Excerpt from the reason:
Quote
The mark applied for consists of the English expression "F.L.Y.". The fact that there is a dot between the letters is not enough to make the character distinctive. Typographical symbols such as dot, comma, semicolon, quotation marks or exclamation marks are not perceived by the public as a mark of origin. Consumers perceive it as a sign that should attract their attention, but not as a sign that points to the company's origin. This separate spelling of the letters "F.L.Y." also does not change the descriptive character of the sign, since it does not change the meaning of the word; Nor does it require any mental effort on the part of the consumer to establish an immediate and immediate connection with the term to which they refer.

The term "fly" means: "transport in an aircraft; Move or be hurried quickly through the air; move through the air using wings ". (Information from the Oxford Online Dictionary, retrieved on 15/11/2018 at https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fly).

(...)

Since the sign has a clear descriptive meaning, it is devoid of any distinctive character and therefore can not be registered under Article 7 (1) (b) CTMR, since it is unable to fulfil the essential function of a trade mark: To distinguish a company's services from those of its competitors."

So yeah F.L.Y. is dead. Can't see a way around that other than a name change at this stage, given its importance they won't keep a brand name they don't own. Intrigued to see what happens now.

 

[SilverArrow]

I feel like they could probably come up with a more interesting name so might be a positive.

 

[CSLKennyNI]

^ Yeah. To be honest when it was announced I really wasn't a fan of the name. Since then I've come to accept it /get used to it and I kinda understand the reasoning for it.
However hopefully now they will give it something more unique and interesting.

Its also not too bad as the name F.L.Y. doesn't actually appear on the advertising banner in the park, only in the announcement video.
Will be interesting to see when there's an announcement or new application put in.
But until then:

EDIT: In this IAaPA interview with Vekoma they are asked about their 2019 projects; she mentions a project in Europe that is going to open "...that the whole world knows about... (but) we are not ready to talk about it".
I take it that they are referring to Phantasialand's flying coaster - the only other Vekoma opening in Europe next year is a Jr Coaster in a mall in Ukraine and I don't believe the world has been talking about that...

From 0:44 onwards you can hear them talk about the development of the new flying coaster model in general which is interesting to hear about.
To paraphrase:

This is actually the third generation of our flying coaster.
The third evolution is part of our whole new line of coasters coming out (family coasters, sit down coasters, flying, Suspended Thrill coaster).
Completely reinvented the way we bring people from the upright sit downposition into the flying position and in doing that we don't just make the whole loading and unloading process more efficient but we also allow for it become much more than just a flying coaster; it can be combined with dark ride or show parts when it that sitting position. You can build your storyline and then flip into flying mode and set off like Superman.
So that's the big part of this whole redesign. But there are also other details like the whole ergonomics of the seats have been newly developed, same goes for the locking mechanism. Comfort and safety are always the biggest aspects of doing that but also the technical side the chassis development and everything. So its a completely new generation vehicle from top to bottom.

 

[Pokemaniac]

The way it was written, at least one would think F.L.Y. was an abbreviation for a trademarkable phrase. If it's just the word "fly" with dots in it, by all means I'm in favour of changing it.

 

[Ethan]

Yeah I'm in the same boat, it isn't the best name tbh. Also, given that Wintertraum starts this week, does this possibly mean some more updates perhaps?

 

[elephant58]

Always did sound like a BTEC version of 'Air'

 

[JoshC.]

The way it was written, at least one would think F.L.Y. was an abbreviation for a trademarkable phrase. If it's just the word "fly" with dots in it, by all means I'm in favour of changing it.

My favourite thing about this is that RCDB have it listed (or at least did) that F.L.Y. = 'Flying Launched Coaster'

Yeah I'm in the same boat, it isn't the best name tbh. Also, given that Wintertraum starts this week, does this possibly mean some more updates perhaps?

My life has been missing some walls lately, so I'm looking forward to updates.

 

[Yoris Kerkhoff]

^ EDIT: In this IAaPA interview with Vekoma they are asked about their 2019 projects; she mentions a project in Europe that is going to open "...that the whole world knows about... (but) we are not ready to talk about it".
I take it that they are referring to Phantasialand's flying coaster - the only other Vekoma opening in Europe next year is a Jr Coaster in a mall in Ukraine and I don't believe the world has been talking about that...

From 0:44 onwards you can hear them talk about the development of the new flying coaster model in general which is interesting to hear about.
To paraphrase:

2019 opening fully confirmed I guess?

 

[CSLKennyNI]

2019 opening fully confirmed I guess?

No, not until the park say something.

In my opinion though I'm confident they are planning for summer 2019. But of course delays can sadly always happen which why no opening year is announced just in case. They want to avoid another Chiapas-fiasco.
Hopefully this winter isn't too harsh and doesn't hold back construction work.

 

[Ethan]

Can't wait to see how our favourite wall is coming along.

 

[Ben]

2019 opening fully confirmed I guess?

Nah you forget they don’t actually have a schedule.

 

[MrRC]

There is not much in this interview that i didn't allready know.

 

[Dex]

Currently at the park, can't make a big post but I'll get someone else to post pictures I get throughout the day.

 

[CSLKennyNI]

^Courtesy of Dex

View of the sound barrier wall along the back of Maus au Chocolat from the bridge above the Berlin entrance.

- New supports and track connecting the curve up through the steel towers beside Wuze Town and the track section that eventually leads into the second launch.
Confirming that the Zero-G Roll, still the tallest part of the layout so far, over the building (as seen below) is part of the 1st half of the layout.
- The 1st launch has been almost entirely erected now.
Must say I like how multiple bits of track wrap around above and below the suspended 1st launch track should provide some nice near misses.

- View of the end of that new section leading into the tunnel under/through that building.
- Blue tarpaulins in the launch tunnel showing that theming work is still taking place.
- There appears to be a quite a bit of build material and a couple drums of cable sitting around. A lot of activity on site.
Metal ducts of some kind have been attached to the bottom right wall as well.

EDIT: Wuze Wall! From PhantaFriends.de user PasXal.

^ Decorative element visible from the top of the building that the wall sits on top of.
This building and the two large arches in the pictures above are not finished. Presumably this will happen in the coming weeks. Or perhaps in the main off-season (January to April) as they need to remove the construction fences and advertising banner infront to better access it.

The corner at Wuze Town is now complete (mostly). The crest design has been shrunk here to make space for the gateway below into Rookburgh (not visible due to the tarpaulins).
You can also see how they've connected and blended together the stone work to the Wuze Town building to close up the gap here.

 

[Fluorineer]

See, I know we all want to see a POV and just the word "off-season" in your post gave me the chills, as I really can't imagine how I will cope with 3 entire months without any wall-updates. But looking at all the insane stuff that has been announced at IAAPA, and thinking how some of that will leave us waiting until 2021, while we already know pretty much what will be going on with these rides: yeah, I prefer this right here. This is how art should unfold itself. Slowly, and filled to the brim with wild guessing, leaving everybody surprised when it finally opens.