TSA's 'SimpliFLY' motto challenged

— -- The Transportation Security Administration has been called many names, and now it can add a new epithet to the list: trademark scofflaw.

The TSA is being accused of violating federal law with a campaign it launched in 2007 urging airline passengers to pack carry-on bags neatly. The problem: TSA posters and videos tell passengers to "SimpliFLY" — an effort to give screeners a better view of what's inside carry-on bags going through X-ray machines.

That phrase, it turns out, has been used since 2003 by Salt Lake City International Airport to promote its toll-free call service that answers travelers' questions. And that, according to a lawsuit the airport filed this week in Utah federal court, is "trademark infringement," "unfair competition" and "false representation" worth unspecified monetary damages.

TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne declined to comment on the case but said "SimpliFLY" lasted only through the 2007 holiday travel — though some posters remain at airports and a SimpliFLY video is on TSA's website.

The dispute "is a little weird," said Mark Janis, a University of Iowa intellectual-property law professor who is not involved in the case. Trademark lawsuits typically occur when a company tries to sell something under a name used by another company.

"The TSA," Janis said, "isn't trying to promote a service or product."

Salt Lake City airport marketing director Barbara Gann, who coined "Simplifly," said the goal isn't necessarily to stop TSA's use of the term. "We're willing to negotiate," she said.

Negotiate?

"They can pay us for using it," Gann added, referring to royalties or a licensing agreement.

The case offers a glimpse into the arcane world of trademark infringement and how it creates unlikely adversaries. The TSA has worked closely with the Salt Lake City airport, selecting it last year as the place to launch a program that creates separate screening lanes for veteran travelers and for families going through security.

But the TSA allegedly was less cooperative in January 2008, when Salt Lake City's senior attorney Marco Kunz sent a letter demanding the agency "promptly cease all use of the word 'Simplifly.' " The airport paid $335 to register "Simplifly" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2005 and "has developed highly valuable goodwill in association with that name," Kunz wrote.