A state appeals court has overturned a lower court and ruled that military flight suits cannot be trademarked:

The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Atlanta-based Afterburner Inc. could not stop others from using a “military aviation-themed approach to business consulting” or wearing flight suits and using fighter jet imagery in such presentations.

The suit started when employees broke off from Afterburner Inc. and started their own company. A trial court had ruled in favor of Afterburner, but the appeals court reversed it:

The appeals court on Thursday threw out the verdict, finding Afterburner failed to show that The Corps Group’s use of military terms such as “flawless execution” or “task saturation” was likely to confuse consumers.

The court also found that Afterburner’s use of flight suits and fighter jet imagery was not distinctive from that of any other military-themed consulting business and was not entitled to trade dress protection.

Afterburner Inc. maintains — probably sincerely — that they were not trying to prevent veterans everywhere from doing what they were doing. It seems it was an overreaching attempt to prevent their own employees from becoming their competitors. Their problem, it seems, is that Afterburner Inc.’s schtick — flight suits, military jargon, aviation in consulting — makes up the experience of every military aviator and, like it or not, Afterburner Inc.’s competitors have just as much right to use that imagery as they do.

And that’s a good thing. If there is something Afterburner does that’s unique to them, fair enough. Trying to stop their employees from starting a competitor by using such a broad-based lawsuit didn’t work, though, either in winning the case, or in winning them friends.

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