Rules: Do not use the name similar to the real one

[Artem999]

I'd like to make a small protest against this rule: Do not use the name similar to the real one.
Making a similar name to a real world airline isn't a legal violation. For example some of the biggest companies in the world have "clons" - General Motors --> Meneral Gotors with the similar logotype.
I'd like to ask you to review this rule due to it's invalidity. Thank you!

[Sigma]

A similar name absolutely can be a legal violation.  As can a similar logo.  Even similar packaging of a product, in the case of manufactured goods, can be a copyright/trademark violation.  A company named "Meneral Gotors" that used similar typeface and a logo to GM is absolutely not legal; not even close -- it would pass for the purposes of satire, and arguably would be acceptable for our purposes here within a virtual game, but it is not legal to conduct business within even a similar name.  There are countless examples of this within international legal precedence, ranging from shoe-maker New Balance successfully winning against "New Barlun" in China (sounds similar when spoken by a Chinese person very quickly apparently) whose name, logo, nor products were identical but were very similar.  To, to use a recent example, Walgreens (a US pharmacy chain) suing Wegmans (a small grocery store chain) over the use of the letter "W".  A letter.  Apparently the fonts are too similar.  I won't embed the images here, but the links are below.  I, as a reasonable person, would say they're quite different and don't even compete within the same product market, but Walgreen's opinion differs.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/graphics/WegmansLogo.jpg
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/graphics/WalgreensLogo.jpg

There is no cut-and-dry method for determining what is too close and what is not too close to another company's name, logo, or typeface.  If there were, there'd be a few tens of billions in legal fees not paid out every year for and against companies fighting such charges.  While I agree that the use of the world "similar" is difficult for a player to determine when they are or are not violating the rule, it's also that way for a company.  Most importantly, it leaves sami the necessary room within the rules to enforce a name-change if he sees fit.

Safe bet:  If it's so close you have to wonder whether it's too close or not, then it probably is.

[Maarten Otto]

I'd like to make a small protest against this rule: Do not use the name similar to the real one.
Making a similar name to a real world airline isn't a legal violation. For example some of the biggest companies in the world have "clons" - General Motors --> Meneral Gotors with the similar logotype.
I'd like to ask you to review this rule due to it's invalidity. Thank you!

You forget one important thing. Sami doesn't have a legion of lawyers to protect him from big company's  .

[GEnx]

Sigma, I would like to comment on that.

Most companies are just suing each other for the sake of competition. They are real world competitors thus do everything in their power to keep their firm specific advantages safe, in this case, advertising/brand image (referring to the logo). In the case of AirwaySim, however, there is no indication that using a name slightly similar to a real world airline name would hurt their brand or their sales. Not to mention that these game worlds are closed to the public if you're not paying.

A good example is Engadget Mobile: http://mobile.engadget.com/. In the past, they have been contacted by T-Mobile to remove their pink logo as they thought it was too similar to their own. As a result, Engadget Mobile renamed their site "EngadgeT-Mobile" and they turned every aspect of the site into pink, which was a very obvious satire meant to illustrate the irony in that email from T-Mobile. T-Mobile, in turn, was obviously powerless because they had no proper arguments that Engadget was infringing their patents. After all, they can't sue everyone using the color pink in combination with "mobile".

To illustrate my point further, this is a case of the world's largest gadget website. Now looking back to AirwaySim, there are so many factors that makes this game differ from the real world, having a brand name slightly similar to a real world airline could never be a real issue. Of course, I recognize that EazyJet is too similar, so clear rules must be set on these points if they are ever to change.

[MRFREAK]

You forget one important thing. Sami doesn't have a legion of lawyers to protect him from big company's  .

He got my support 

[swiftus27]

You can't flip the Golden Arches over and by WcDonalds.

[jordanD]

What about having golden arcs and calling it McDowell's?