FlightAware Drops Kalshi Suit After One Day; Markets Scrubbed of Brand Name

FlightAware dismissed its lawsuit against prediction market platform Kalshi on Tuesday, just 24 hours after filing it, and Kalshi's flight cancellation markets no longer carry the FlightAware name.

The rapid withdrawal closes the immediate legal threat, but leaves the underlying data dispute unresolved. As covered in our earlier reporting, FlightAware filed suit on August 11, alleging Kalshi improperly used its flight data and trademark in CFTC-regulated prediction contracts. The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning FlightAware retains the right to refile.

At least one event contract on Kalshi's platform was modified to list "Primary Source Agency" as the entity responsible for verifying flight cancellation data, replacing the FlightAware name that had previously appeared. The rebranding is surgical: Kalshi kept the markets running while stripping the specific attribution that formed the core of FlightAware's trademark complaint.

Whether that substitution reflects a genuine change in data sourcing or simply a labeling adjustment remains unclear. "Primary Source Agency" is a generic placeholder, not a named data vendor, which raises questions about what underlying feed actually powers the contracts. Kalshi has not publicly identified an alternative data provider, and the company has not commented on whether it reached any settlement with FlightAware or simply outlasted a weak legal filing.

The one-day timeline invites skepticism about FlightAware's original position. Filing for a temporary restraining order, then withdrawing before a court could rule, suggests either the parties reached a private agreement or FlightAware concluded its legal footing was shakier than it appeared. Using publicly available flight data to settle prediction market outcomes sits in genuinely contested legal territory. Prediction markets, by design, rely on observable real-world events, and the line between permissible data use and trademark infringement has not been clearly drawn in U.S. courts for this asset class.

For Kalshi, the episode underscores a structural vulnerability that extends beyond this single dispute. The platform operates as a designated contract market under CFTC oversight, which gives it regulatory legitimacy but does not insulate it from intellectual property claims tied to the third-party data its contracts depend on. Flight cancellations, sports scores, economic releases: each data type carries its own licensing and attribution landscape. The FlightAware situation is a preview of friction Kalshi and competitors like Polymarket will face as prediction markets expand into more verticals with proprietary data owners paying close attention.

The dismissal without prejudice keeps that friction alive. FlightAware can return to court if Kalshi's new data sourcing arrangement turns out to look a lot like the old one.