Delta Air Lines is suing Marriott over its Delta Hotels brand, arguing that the hotel giant was trying to “hijack” its brand and good will when it purchased the Canadian hotel group and expanded it significantly. Is there any merit to this, or…? Thanks to View from the Wing for flagging this story.
Delta Air Lines thinks Marriott is copying its branding
Marriott has dozens of hotel brands, and one of those is Delta Hotels by Marriott. The Delta Hotels brand was founded in 1962 in Canada, and was acquired by Marriott in 2015. Since being acquired by Marriott, the Delta Hotels portfolio has grown significantly, including in the United States.
For the past several years, Delta Air Lines has been trying to take legal action against Marriott over the branding, and a trademark infringement trial has just kicked off this week. The Atlanta-based airline argues that Marriott tried to “hijack” its brand and good will when it purchased the brand a decade ago.
Of course there are many uses of the word “delta” out there, and they don’t originate with the airline. For that matter, the airline in the first place is named after the Mississippi Delta region.
Delta Air Lines and Delta Hotels are both in the travel industry, but it’s not like airlines and hotels compete directly. Then again, airlines are increasingly selling hotel stays (in an effort to increasingly monetize their loyalty programs, by offering rewards in exchange for a hotel commission), so Delta Air Lines does also sell hotel stays.
Come and think of it, that’s likely one of the reasons that Delta Air Lines is trying to take legal actions. For example, United Airlines has its United Hotels booking platform, while I imagine Delta couldn’t have a Delta Hotels booking platform (it’s currently named “Delta Stays”).
My take on this Delta Air Lines vs. Marriott lawsuit
I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not going to pretend to speak to the merit of this lawsuit in legal terms. But purely in terms of logic, what’s my take on the merit? I understand why Delta doesn’t want another brand using the “Delta Hotels” name, but I also feel like this is a stretch:
- I think it’s safe to say that when Delta Hotels was founded in 1962, the name didn’t derive from anything related to the airline
- I don’t think Marriott purchased Delta Hotels because it somehow thought it was a great opportunity to take advantage of the carrier’s branding; instead, we know that the major hotel groups like to grow at any cost, and this was a hotel group with acquisition potential
- I can’t imagine that the number of people who are actually confused between the two brands is that high; sure, some people on the internet are really sloppy and send emails to the wrong person or company, but that’s more of a general issue, in my opinion
- Delta Air Lines is investing in WestJet, so could it be that Delta Air Lines is actually buying a stake in WestJet to take advantage of the good will in Canada toward the Delta Hotels brand? 😉
- The Delta Hotels brand now has just over 50 properties in the United States, so it’s not exactly a huge brand, and it’s no surprise that there has been a fair bit of growth for a limited service brand
To me it would seem a little extreme to force Delta Hotels to change its name in the United States, for example. However, perhaps it wouldn’t be unreasonable to force Delta Hotels to sharpen its branding somewhat. For example, officially the brand is named Delta Hotels by Marriott, which seems pretty clear.
But when you look at the actual branding, you’ll see the logo is typically written in three lines, with “Delta” in the first row, “Hotels” in the second row, and “Marriott” in the third row, after a horizontal line. That horizontal line does seem to almost separate Delta Hotels a bit from Marriott, so perhaps an updated logo wouldn’t be unreasonable.
Bottom line
Delta Air Lines is suing Marriott over its Delta Hotels brand, arguing that the company is “hijacking” its brand and good will. The thing is, Delta Hotels has been around since the 1960s and was founded in Canada, so clearly it wasn’t initially inspired by the airline.
However, the argument seems to be that when Marriott acquired the brand in 2015, it decided to expand it to the United States, and that was at least partly motivated by Delta Air Lines’ premium image. I have to imagine that Delta wants to be able to use the “Delta Hotels” branding for its hotel booking platform, given that this is becoming an increasingly big business for airlines.
It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this…
What do you make of this Delta Air Lines lawsuit about Delta Hotels?
