Piper Aircraft, Inc. v. Archer Aviation Inc. Filed 8/28

Piper Aircraft has started a legal action against eVTOL developer Archer Aviation (Archer Aviation Inc. D/B/A Archer Aviation AND Archer)... over the tradename 'Archer' -- which, of course, has been part of the Piper tribe for many a year.

The 24 page complaint, filed In The United States District Court For The District Of Delaware, sets out with a good deal of Piper history to set the pace as they explain that the tradename 'Archer' has been a part of the Piper brand for nearly fifty years.

The suit details that, "ARCHER® airplanes have been manufactured and sold by Piper and its predecessors in interest substantially and continuously from 1976 through the present, with the exception of a brief interruption which occurred circa 1991 when its production of aircraft was made impossible by financial difficulties which forced Piper Aircraft Corporation into a bankruptcy proceeding under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (hereinafter the “Bankruptcy”). However, neither at the time of that brief interruption, or any other time, did Piper or any of its predecessors in interest, abandon the ARCHER® trademark nor did they ever intend not to resume its use.

Even though the Bankruptcy was not formally concluded until 1995, production of ARCHER® airplanes resumed in 1992 and has continued ever since.

In 1995 substantially all the assets of Piper Aircraft Corporation, including without limitation, all worldwide right, title and interest in, to and under the ARCHER® trademark and all goodwill thereto, were acquired by Plaintiff, which that time was named The New Piper Aircraft, Inc."

They also note that, "Piper has expended millions of dollars and enormous amounts of, time, effort and other valuable resources in advertising and promoting the ARCHER® brand," and that, "Within just the past ten (10) years, sales of ARCHER® airplanes have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Piper." The suit goes into further, somewhat laborious details about the history, value and pervasive use of the tradename until getting to the pivotal statement, "Piper is the sole and exclusive owner of U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,203,935 (the “Federal Registration”) which is registered on the Principal Register of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) and covers the mark ARCHER® for use in connection with “airplanes” and whose Registration Date is November 24, 1998."

As you can see, the 'legalese' is extensive, detailed and comprehensive... and it only gets more so as the suit gets to the issue of perceived offenses.

So... what's the beef with Archer Aviation?

"Defendant’s unlawful use of Piper’s federally registered trademark ARCHER® and trading off of, and otherwise cashing in on, the excellent reputation, extensive recognition, and goodwill associated Piper’s trademark has become anything but 'stealthy'."

Further postulated offenses include, "Defendant adopted the designation “ARCHER” without license, authorization, consent, permission or approval from Piper and has used and continues to use same without license, authorization, consent, permission or approval from Piper.

Defendant’s unauthorized uses of “ARCHER” include use thereof in commerce in connection with aircraft and services relating to aircraft.

Defendant’s unauthorized uses of “ARCHER” also include use of same as part of the Domain Name as well as part of company name “Archer Aviation Inc.” and the trade names and fictitious names “Archer”, and “Archer Aviation” which Defendant uses as identifiers of itself and its aircraft business."

Extensive additional detail about Archer Aviation's use of the Archer tradename is detailed before the suit eventually gets to the legal point of the matter... "On or about June 23, 2020 Piper sent Defendant, a letter (the “Demand Letter”) informing Defendant of Piper’s Federal Registration, enclosing a copy of the Federal Registration, and demanding, inter alia, that Defendant cease and desist from its use of ARCHER and any confusingly similar designations, including without limitation the Domain name."

Piper allegedly did not get an answer and noted that Archer Aviation even started the application process to trademark the Archer tradename, itself. "On or about June 8, 2020, Defendant filed an application in the USPTO seeking to register ARCHER as a mark for use in connection with: “aircraft taxi transport; taxi transport via aircraft; providing aircraft taxi booking services via mobile applications; airline transportation services; airline ticket reservation services; airline check-in services; transport by aircraft; aircraft rental; arranging, coordinating and managing transfer and transit of aircraft passengers, crew and luggage; air transportation of freight; air freight shipping services; air transportation of passengers and freight; booking of transport; booking of tickets for air travel; booking of transportation via a website” (“Defendant’s Application”)."

The suit goes to name four counts of contention and demands a jury trial on this case. The entire document, as filed by Piper counsel, Klehr, Harrison, Harvey, Branzburg LLP is fairly aggressive and it appears that Piper is MAD... and means business.

Calls to both Piper Aircraft and Archer Aviation have yet to be returned, but we'll do our best to keep you updated with this story, because it sure sounds like a major skirmish is underway...

FMI: www.piper.com, www.flyarcher.com,