The Victoria Airport Authority is taking control of its name.
The authority had its application to register its trademark YYJ — the International Air Transport Association airport code for Victoria — approved and formalized by Industry Canada.
The move has nothing to do with launching a marketing or branding campaign, as Vancouver did with its YVR designation, but with ensuring the three letters are used for good rather than evil.
“YYJ is becoming more prevalent in the Twitter world as a hashtag and we noticed other airports across Canada have done it, so we thought it would be prudent to step up,” said Geoff Dickson, president of the airport authority. “We don’t want to be in a position to have people using YYJ inappropriately.”
According to Industry Canada, by registering the trademark, the airport protects it from misuse and gives the authority the exclusive right to use it throughout Canada for 15 years. That term can be renewed indefinitely.
It also stops others from using a similar trademark that may be confusing and lets the airport license it in order to drive revenue.
It seemed to work for Vancouver International Airport: Its YVR designation was named one of B.C.’s most loved brands by B.C. Business magazine in 2015.
Dickson said they may consider a campaign at some point, but it’s not in the plans right now.
“But [YYJ] is becoming more embedded and it may be something we do if we decide to go through a visual identity program or branding program,” he said.
Dickson said they did not make the move to stop anyone in particular from misusing it, and he said it should not affect anyone using it on social-media platforms to refer to Victoria. “We just noticed through Twitter that the use of YYJ [to designate something or someone in Victoria] was becoming more mainstream.”
