westjetvirtual.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8/11/2010

WestJet shuts down enthusiasts website.

8/6/2010 - WestJet Airlines Ltd. through it's representatives at Gowling Laleur Henderson LLP issued a demand letter to the owner of the website westjetvirtual.net. The demand letter cited trademark infringement and the resulting benefits as the underlying reasoning for the demand to shutdown the website. It was also demanded that the rights to the domain name westjetvirtual.net be transferred to WestJet Ltd. by August 13, 2010.

The site was one of hundreds of virtual airlines operating on the internet in much the same fashion including others dedicated to WestJet Airlines. The items in question were a WestJet Airlines logo that had been slightly changed and the domain name itself as it includes the word "westjet" within it.

Site owner David Clark was quoted as saying "I couldn't believe it when I received the letter from WestJet, we drove business to them if anything. I know that many of our more than one hundred members were avid customers of WestJet". He also stated that permission requests has been sent to WestJet for the use of the logo in the form of a limited use agreement a number of times in early May of 2010 with no response from WestJet until August 6th. "We never profited in any way from the operation of the website and never had a member join thinking they were in some way purchasing a service from WestJet Airlines. I guess that this is the new WestJet, they are definitely not living up to their claims of being involved with the community" Mr. Clark also stated. The website has removed the images in question but the domain name rights remain with the site owner. Mr. Clark stated he had not made a decision on the disposition of the those rights. "I still do not understand why WestJet chose us to make an example of our site, other sites are doing the same thing and have been much longer than us. They have probably lost our members as customers." Mr. Clark stated in closing.

westjetvirtual.net was a dedicated non-profit hobby organization that used flight simulation to model the operations of WestJet Airlines utilizing the vatsim.net virtual air traffic network. westjetvirtual.net is a non-profit group of enthusiasts of flight simulation and WestJet Airlines and in no way represents WestJet Airlines Ltd.

More information on virtual airlines can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_airline

Contact Information:
David Clark
virtualairlinemedia[at]gmail[dot]com

August 7, 2010

To: All virtual airline members

Re: The future of our virtual airline

Valued members,

In a short period of time this virtual airline has grown and become a community like none other ever seen in this respect. It is everything that I could have hoped for and more, a true community of like minded virtual pilots and fans of the real world WestJet Airline.

Upon starting this adventure I contacted WestJet Airlines a number of times in various methods with no response. This is the reason we changed the logo and a few other changes were made from the original site design. I have also been very careful not to include fictional ticket purchases or vacations and such on our pages as many virtual airlines do. This was to help ensure there was never any confusion as to our intentions or purpose.

There is also precedence set by WestJet Airlines with the operations of: www.westjetvirtual.org and www.virtualwestjet.org .

Unfortunately, WestJet does not see us in the same light and has accused us of a number of infringement issues and have used their council to relay these beliefs in what I can only describe as the tactics of a neighborhood bully. I am not going to lay out the demands here in this venue, but I will say some are valid concerns and some are not in my opinion; but as a non-profit group of aviation enthusiasts we do not have the means to fight this battle. My disappointment is in the fact that they are unwilling to allow this group of fans to enjoy a Virtual WestJet in any way.


David Clark
___1001