Microsoft, the owner of professional networking website LinkedIn, has demanded LinkedAero.com, a subsidiary of PartsBase, to discontinue the LinkedAero company name, URL and logo structure due to concerns over customer confusion.
PartsBase, a US-based online marketplace founded in 1996, maintains and operates LinkedAero. PartsBase is a business-to-business parts locator service for the aviation, aerospace and defense industries.
PartsBase has 7,500 member companies, including Airbus, Boeing, Aviall, Bombardier, Lufthansa Group, AAR, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell and Delta TechOps, conducting transactions in over 194 countries.
PartsBase developed LinkedAero to provide information to members and the rest of the aviation industry. The platform aims to grow the aerospace community as well as offer advanced profiles for PartsBase members and companies transacting with aerospace businesses.
LinkedAero has videos, images, articles and provides a voice for the aerospace community to educate and reach more customers.
“This is yet another example of large internet players trying to control the future with attempts to keep it in the hands of only a few big names,” said Greg Schmidt, president of PartsBase.
“LinkedAero was not designed to compete with LinkedIn. Our belief in this platform and our commitment to our customers is more important than the distraction of legal battles and wasting resources,” Greg Schmidt said.
PartsBase has started a rebranding process for the platform’s name, URL and logo. Members of the aviation community can still become members of LinkedAero by signing up for free on the website. PartsBase will officially launch the rebranded site by the end of summer 2017.
