[Lawsuit dropped] FlightAware sues Kalshi over flight cancellation data

[Alpha Marine]

Prediction platforms certainly have the right to use any publicly available information. The fact that a flight was canceled is an objective fact. What kind of intellectual property protection are we talking about? This is simply ridiculous!

Is Kalshi getting the data by itself? They are taking the data from FlightAware, and FlightAware has a right to stop people from using data gotten from them to gamble. They are taking the data and saying it was "approved by FlightAware", which it was not. They spent resources to collect that data, so if another company wants to use that data for gambling purposes, the least they can do is make sure it is authorised.

“A market that allows the public to wager on whether flights will be delayed or cancelled creates an incentive for participants to interfere with air travel—including by causing or contributing to flight cancellations—to profit from their wagers,“ said the lawsuit. “Worse, wagers on flights being timely may incentivize airline, airport, or other aviation workers to cut corners to keep a flight on time.“

And I also agree with this. Certain things shouldn't be wagered on. It creates so much room for exploitation. And worst, doing this without the approval of the company you got the data from, but telling people on your sites that it is approved by them, is not ethical.

[stompix]

It's pretty simple:
Kalshi is using FlightAware data for commercial purposes. /end

This will not even go to court, Klashi will seek a settlement when the waters get too hot, it's one thing to use public free information for personal purposes it's a different thing to use it in a business and generate revenue based on it.

Prediction platforms certainly have the right to use any publicly available information. The fact that a flight was canceled is an objective fact. What kind of intellectual property protection are we talking about? This is simply ridiculous!

Lols, you think so?
The moment you use their data for your business you must pay them for that is normal.
They refuse to allow you to do so, you go away!

[Cryptohygenic]

I also support this and they are right in doing so, anything they have to do in the name of their branch should be with their awareness, no one is giving them permission to do any form of data infringement upon their platform, is legal that they sue them, if the truly know that what they have done is not wrong, then they should make their appearance at the court and defend themselves on what they have to say.

It is so absorbing about what the FlightAware commission will even describe the scenario of the prediction market introducing their events to the market.
Do you think they will just casually tell to the court that they don't just like the fact they are being exposed by the so Kalshi prediction market? Or there are going to be some worth confidential reasons attached to it to back up their claims why they don't want it?
However, it is better they both go to the court and defend themselves. Who knows if the FlightAware have that lawsuit as that same strategy that the authorities usually uses to extort gambling companies over operating without license.

[KiaKia]

They just won't stop until there's a ruling preventing them from using companies' data for profit; prediction markets can be exploited, and Kalshi and other similar prediction markets should be policed or restricted to prevent exploitation of other companies' data. The company may be public, but it's open to insider manipulation.
 
They have a battery of lawyers; they should know better than to ignore initial warnings that what they are doing is wrong, instead of challenging them in court, thinking that they have lawyers who can defend their case.

There should have been some form of rules on these predictions websites already, it's why they are facing this problems right now, right from the first day some rules should have been prepared for prediction markets.

It's why some politicians were able to make money knowing the outcome of every predictions fully well, prediction market was never planned well and I figured that's the fault from the government, they let them exists because they also have a plan to benefit too.

They don't have the right to use any information as they like even if it's from other companies, it sound funny at first until you deeply think about it and see how this people are everywhere, it's like they planted spies gathering information that's not ment for the public.

[coin-investor]

What do you think about the lawsuit?

Companies like FlightAware file suits because of possible abuse and exploitation. We have seen in the past how employees exploit their company's data for profit, and FlightAware understands that it can happen to their company.

They don't trust Kalshi or other prediction markets to take action to prevent this scenario because they are a profit-driven company and they don't care.

There's got to be a regulation on prediction markets because of many exploitations and abuses; two things will likely happen: they will either lose a lot of money from the many cases filed against them or they will be shutdown.

[Oshosondy]

Lawsuit dropped.

I did not know what happened, but it is possible this has been settled out of court is what I am thinking, but FlightAware did not give any reason he dropped the case.

Flight-tracking company FlightAware withdrew its lawsuit against Kalshi on Tuesday, a day after it filed the suit that accuses the prediction markets giant of using its data and name without its knowledge to host gambling markets on flight cancellations.

The case has been "voluntarily dismissed, without prejudice, against all defendants," lawyers for FlightAware wrote in the latest filing.

All I think is that it is so wise of Kalshi for this case not to reach court.

[adultcrypto]

Technically, this is an infringement in their business because it will end up exposing the flight company's weaknesses hence, the need to sue them as a way of checking their excesses. Imagine allowing this to continue and FlightAware experiences high flight cancelation, that will definitely have negative impact on their business. I don't know if prediction markets consider things like confidentiality in selecting events to feature in their platform because if they do, I doubt they would use flight cancellation data of a business in their gambling platform.  

[sunsilk]

Kalshi chose the cheaper way of settling it. Because if it goes to the court, it's not only bad publicity to them but as well as they're going to spend a lot for it to fight and win it.

But they're wise, and so FlightAware have to drop the case and let them move on. I guess that if there's a settlement between the two, it's still huge money.

Imagine that just after a day of filing, they've already dropped the case. Money talks when it's with the lawsuits and better do the right thing before it gets worse which Kalshi chose to do.

[Emitdama]

At least they are not suing and requesting damages from Kalshi. What I see here is that they are trying to protect their own reputation because seeing their data being used on the Kalshi market will give the wrong impression that they are connected to Karshi or granting them access which airlines won't take that likely, customers will also fear for their own safety as long as the data which is being used by Karshi is sourced from FlightAware they have the right to ask them to stop using it especially for any activity they considered unjust.

I don't understand how it can be damaging their reputation or the reputation of the airlines only because the platform is offering betting opportunities on flight cancellations, because information about these things is publicly available for everyone to know or see, it's not that just because a betting platform is showing that a specific flight from a specific airline got cancelled, it's going to damage their reputation.

And, when it comes to FlightAware, it's a publicly available flight tracker or a platform that provides information about flights publicly, and I don't think any information that is made publicly available can't be used by anyone, especially when those who are using the information is crediting them for it, and on top of everything, they are just saying that the data they are using is being confirmed through FlightAware. I don't see what's the problem here, to be honest.

FlightAware should be happy that the platform is doing free advertisement for them, their platform is getting promoted without any costs to all the customers that the other platform has. It should be a win-win situation for both.

[Smartprofit]

In my opinion, if Kalshi loses this lawsuit, it will set a very dangerous precedent. 🙋

Prediction platforms certainly have the right to use any publicly available information. The fact that a flight was canceled is an objective fact. What kind of intellectual property protection are we talking about? This is simply ridiculous!

FlightAware simply wants to profit from the new financial market through litigation. Kalshi is a centralized American company, making it easier to attack. Pulling off such a scheme with Polymarket is much more difficult. It has no single governing body.💁

FlightAware headquarter is in Houston, Texas which is also in United States. So it is a local dispute. If truly FlightAware contacted Kalshi about the issue and the prediction market is not accepting the warnings, I do not think Kalshi can win the case. If a person or a company want to file an infringement suit, the person or company would make sure he or it has warned several times.

Personally, I find FlightAware's claims absurd. Yes, I know that in the US, people are very fond of filing lawsuits, and the legal profession is highly respected and prestigious, but the very topic of this lawsuit seems absurd to me. 🙋

FlightAware claims its intellectual property rights have been violated... Okay... But what intellectual property are representatives of this organization talking about?

This organization doesn't create any intellectual property requiring legal protection! This organization simply collects publicly available radio signals!

In the US, as far as I know, there is case law. If objective facts of our reality (for example, radio signals) are recognized as intellectual property, it will collapse the entire derivatives market. Traditional financial companies will suffer. For example, meteorological services could sue the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After all, it trades weather futures (and weather is the intellectual property of weather services 😉)!  Media outlets won't be able to publish macroeconomic data without permission from the US government. After all, according to FlightAware's logic, it's intellectual property.💁

[DubemIfedigbo001]

All I think is that it is so wise of Kalshi for this case not to reach court.

I think so as well, if they had a court session, Kalshi would've lost because the case is a clear one and it would leave a dent on their reputation and the compensation would be huge. But I'm not writing off the fact that Kalshi entertained their demand off the camera, I believe the complainant were adequately compensated before agreeing to drop charges.

FlightAware is also trying to protect their reputation, at least this lawsuit shows that they're not supporting their activities being gambled upon as this might have negative consequences, including employees making smart moves with flight arrangements in order to make profits or even betting on insider information and the company gets accused of manipulating flights for profit.

[stompix]

In the US, as far as I know, there is case law. If objective facts of our reality (for example, radio signals) are recognized as intellectual property, it will collapse the entire derivatives market. Traditional financial companies will suffer. For example, meteorological services could sue the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After all, it trades weather futures (and weather is the intellectual property of weather services 😉)! 

Why do you keep posting nonsense without basic research?
CME Group was paying Speedwell Climate 2 million a year for their data, they never took "public" data from AccuWeather or Weather or whatever!
Kalshi was using FlightAware data for free and kept mentioning them as a settlement party, this means they would also be exposed to a lawsuit if people think the results at Kalshi are biased.

This is not about the US or EU or anywhere else, this is about common sense!

This organization simply collects publicly available radio signals!

If you think this is so easy to do, why don't you start one?
Oh wait, you need millions in equipment and hundred of poeple working for that!

[X-ray]

Lawsuit dropped.

I did not know what happened, but it is possible this has been settled out of court is what I am thinking, but FlightAware did not give any reason he dropped the case.

Flight-tracking company FlightAware withdrew its lawsuit against Kalshi on Tuesday, a day after it filed the suit that accuses the prediction markets giant of using its data and name without its knowledge to host gambling markets on flight cancellations.

The case has been "voluntarily dismissed, without prejudice, against all defendants," lawyers for FlightAware wrote in the latest filing.

All I think is that it is so wise of Kalshi for this case not to reach court.

FlightAware dropped the case because Kalshi already revised their cancelation flight market by changing the source of their information. They're still using FlightAware to verify their market, but it's now getting mentioned as their primary source agent. They're no longer blatantly saystheir flight cancelation market tied to the flight aware directly.

This is why after this loophole is fixed, Flightaware is deciding to drop their case because Kalshi has done what they have been demanding.

[Fortify]

This is not about a country or states regulations related to prediction market, this is the reason I posted this as a topic. If you want to post anything related to countries or states regarding prediction markets, we have a thread for that already which is this:

Prediction markets legality as gambling or derivative trading platforms, & rules

This is about a company called FlightAware. The company sued Kalshi over flight cancellations data which the company see as trademark infringement. The company said they have warned Kalshi, but Kashi did not listen.

FlightAware, a company that offers real-time status and information about flights globally, filed a lawsuit against Kalshi in a New York federal court over the prediction markets platform using its “data and name to run gambling markets on flight cancellations.”

In a Monday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the company said that despite repeated demands for Kalshi to stop using its registered trademark and offering bets “verified by FlightAware’s data,” the prediction market has continued to list event contracts based on flight cancellations.

What do you think about the lawsuit?


Lawsuit dropped.

Seems like FlightAware are the sort of people who knew the law would protect them in this case and was most likely a slam dunk case of trademark infringement. Frankly it's a shame that these cases get settled so often out of court and you never know if the defendant agree to pay or the case would have failed in court. Using phrases like "verified by FlightAware" does seem like they were trading off and trying to benefit from the data of this legitimate site. They probably had to pay a substantial sum to free themselves from this litigation, besides all the lawyers fees that it probably took to get it this far. These prediction markets are all balancing very precariously between illegal and legal, so the last thing they probably want is another case open against them. I really like FlightAware and am glad they're actively protecting their reputation, because not many companies want to be associated with them, especially when the heat is on from regulators.

[Zlantann]

Lawsuit dropped.

I did not know what happened, but it is possible this has been settled out of court is what I am thinking, but FlightAware did not give any reason he dropped the case.

Flight-tracking company FlightAware withdrew its lawsuit against Kalshi on Tuesday, a day after it filed the suit that accuses the prediction markets giant of using its data and name without its knowledge to host gambling markets on flight cancellations.

The case has been "voluntarily dismissed, without prejudice, against all defendants," lawyers for FlightAware wrote in the latest filing.

All I think is that it is so wise of Kalshi for this case not to reach court.

We will never know how the case was settled until there is an official statement from any party. Voluntary withdrawal might have been caused by one or more factors. It might be an out-of-court settlement, or the plaintiff chose not to continue with the case.

However, I strongly believe that it was Kalshi that asked for a settlement since FlightAware claims that it has warned the former about using its data without approval. Copyright Infringement and false endorsement are serious offenses.

[_act_]

We will never know how the case was settled until there is an official statement from any party. Voluntary withdrawal might have been caused by one or more factors. It might be an out-of-court settlement, or the plaintiff chose not to continue with the case.

FlightAware is not a small company at all, the companies lawyers would have liked the case to be settled in court so that Kalshi can pay more money. What we can only say now is if Kalshi was able to convince them by not paying but listen to the company's request and make amends, or done that after paying some money because anything that involves lawyers already, money must be paid, but it will not be high to the one the court will conclude on.

[Hispo]

This is the first time I have ever read about people betting actual money on flights being cancelled or not, it is quite weird... I would say it is even weirder than having people betting on the weather...

It seems Kalshi did not know Flightaware was actually going to take the case to the courts, so they continued to use their name and date in order for people to feel bets when fair and being taken care of by information available on a reputable third party service.

If there is a lesson to learn here, it is how we are never supposed to assume a company won't sue one, even after politely asking us to drop something which they don't like and associated with their brand...

It is strange that there are people betting on flight cancellations, but make no mistake maybe some bettors already have data so they are sure of the bets they choose.

Is it too rash for Kalshi to bring Flightaware for betting on her platform? Not all companies are happy with their brands in the prediction market for many people, especially regarding passenger safety issues and this flight is very sensitive.

Once again a platform as big as Kalshi will not lose, in the end it just ends without us seeing how it ends so Kalshi will remain operational.

Ultimately, Kalshi will find a way to circumvent this obstacle and keep their markets open for people to bet on flights, there is no question about it, as it seems to be a lucrative market for them.
And honestly, this just seems a way for people working in airports to make an easy buck with information they may have before the general public.
Betting on flights does not sound as interesting and thill inducing as betting in politics and sports... Perhaps it is because Football and American politics are my favorite markets.

I have never come across the first person who likes to risk their money on planes.

[Haunebu]

They 100% settled if you ask me since they wouldn't have dropped the lawsuit that quickly for any other reason. Kalshi probably thought their warnings didn't matter much and ignored them until they went ahead and filed the lawsuit which woke them up.

They must have given them a sizeable sum to drop the lawsuit so quickly. Great payday for flightaware most likely.

[Obari]

Settling out of court was the best thing if you ask me but I really don't see much reasons why the flight company should take the very serious since it had no direct effect on its business except it does because if it was just about people betting on if a certain flight will be cancelled or not, then I don't think it was worth taking the case to court but since they already said, they've warned the kalshi over this very issue then it's justifiable to take the to court and I believe all related predictions about FlightAware will be take down and serious by Kalshi this time.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I also support this and they are right in doing so, anything they have to do in the name of their branch should be with their awareness, no one is giving them permission to do any form of data infringement upon their platform, is legal that they sue them, if the truly know that what they have done is not wrong, then they should make their appearance at the court and defend themselves on what they have to say.

It is so absorbing about what the FlightAware commission will even describe the scenario of the prediction market introducing their events to the market.
Do you think they will just casually tell to the court that they don't just like the fact they are being exposed by the so Kalshi prediction market? Or there are going to be some worth confidential reasons attached to it to back up their claims why they don't want it?
However, it is better they both go to the court and defend themselves. Who knows if the FlightAware have that lawsuit as that same strategy that the authorities usually uses to extort gambling companies over operating without license.

The problem is about prediction market, there are always cases of internal leaks within their system that serves as informants, you all know this and is very possible and that is why they are taking some of these platforms information leaks over to the prediction market, another reason that many will not trust them, don't you know that despite the fact that many gamblers ar fond of gambling to earn money, enlarge number of them still don't buy the idea of going for prediction markets because of the risk.