Toyota and Jetstar in legal battle over whether jumping in the air is a trademark

Jetstar and Toyota are embroiled in legal proceedings after the budget airline contested Toyota’s plan to trademark its ‘Oh, What a Feeling!’ “jump”.

Toyota has used actors jumping in the air at the end of its advertisements since the mid-1980s while Jetstar has used actors doing a star jump since it was launched in 2004.

Glenn Campbell, spokesperson for Toyota, told SmartCompany that Toyota filed a trademark application earlier this year with government intellectual property authority IP Australia.

The trademark was accepted for registration by IP Australia on February 28 but Toyota is aware that a notice of opposition was filed on August 31.

“Toyota Australia believes our trademark should be registered,” says Campbell

“The jump and ‘Oh, What a Feeling!’ is synonymous with Toyota and we have been using it for almost 30 years.”

A spokesperson for Jetstar told SmartCompany it had filed an opposition to Toyota’s application in order to help preserve Jetstar’s right to freely use a star jump in brand communications.

“The star jump has been an iconic symbol of the Jetstar brand since the creation of the airline over eight years ago. It has been used in campaigns across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, China and Vietnam and will be used as Jetstar further expands through Asia,” the spokesperson said.

The case raises the issue of whether a human star jump can be trademarked and follows attempts by Cadbury to trademark the colour purple and Facebook to trademark the use of the word face.