Flight Attendants Association confronts newly merged advice group

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia has issued a written notice to the Financial Advice Association of Australia regarding the latter’s intention to register the acronym FAAA as a trademark.

The legal representative of the Flight Attendants Association, Turon Legal’s Arwed Turon, emailed a letter to the chief executive officer of the recently merged advice association, informing her of his client’s intention to oppose the trademark bid.

In the letter, seen by ifa, the legal representative argued that the Flight Attendants Association of Australia had been using the acronym FAAA since its inception on 1 June 1992.

Moreover, the legal representative pointed out that aside from having a business name registered with an ATO-issued ABN under that acronym, since the inception of digital media, the association had used the acronym on all its digital signatures, including but not limited to website and emails.

“The public seeing my client’s long-user acronym, ‘FAAA’ being related to a financial services body would send a confusing message to the public and our members,” the letter reads.

Moreover, Mr Turon said his client is concerned that members of the public, seeking to contact the advice association, may call its offices seeking financial advice or “assistance with grievances in that domain”.

“Your association, using the acronym FAAA, would result in our member flight attendants, or the public, calling my client’s office in error and cause unnecessary administrative distractions which would be time wasting and intrusive,” Mr Turon wrote.

He also added that the Flight Attendants Association had long been known as the FAAA in the media and had readily been referred to as such by the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

“Accordingly, my client requests that you withdraw your application for the registration of your proposed trademark for the reasons set out above,” the letter concludes.

Speaking to ifa, the CEO of the Financial Advice Association, Sarah Abood, confirmed the group had received the letter.

“The Flight Attendants Association have let us know that they intend to oppose our application to trademark the ‘FAAA’ acronym, which is currently not trademarked,” Ms Abood said.

“We intend to work with them to help resolve their concerns.”

The Financial Planning Association of Australia and the Association of Financial Advisers legally completed their merger to form the Financial Advice Association Australia in early April.

At the time, the group revealed its new logo, which was created following a comprehensive consultation with its members. Central to the new logo design are the three “A’s” of the name represented as three speech bubbles, to symbolise its voice in dialogue with key stakeholders.