Travelers prepare to enter Oakland International Airport on Tuesday, November 26, 2013 in Oakland, California. San Francisco sued Oakland after officials voted to change the name from the city airport to Oakland International Airport in the San Francisco Bay Area.
San Francisco officials said the change would cause confusion and affect the airport’s finances. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File) BEN MARGOT AP The city of San Francisco has sued the city of Oakland, saying a plan to rename the airport would violate the city’s trademark and “sow confusion
.” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed a federal lawsuit Thursday after the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners approved a plan to change the name of Oakland Metropolitan International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. The lawsuit argues that the Oakland airport hoped to “increase passenger numbers and profits by rushing to illegally incorporate” the San Francisco airport’s “SFO” trademark into its own name. According to Chiu, the plan ignores SFO’s longstanding brand and identity and would violate federal and state intellectual property laws.
“Oakland Airport’s hasty and unnecessary efforts and refusal to engage in discussions about alternative names have left the City and County of San Francisco with no choice but to file v. Defendant City of Oakland,” the lawsuit states. Chiu said in a statement, first reported by ABC News, that they had hoped Oakland would “come to its senses” but refused to cooperate in finding an alternative name.
The San Francisco city attorney’s statement announcing the lawsuit said the name change would “highly likely” lead to widespread confusion among passengers and travel incidents that could have been avoided.
“This new name will create confusion and chaos for tourists, harming the tourism industry in the region,” Chiu’s statement said. We have seen at least one airline use the new name, suggesting SFO has suffered economic losses.”
“We want to see the entire Bay Area prosper as a tourist destination and expand our offerings to visitors, but changing our name is not a legal or practical way to do this .” The City of San Francisco has owned the U.S. federal trademark for “San Francisco International Airport” since the 1950s, the release said.
The city attorney’s statement also noted that the city of Oakland only gave San Francisco 30 minutes notice of the proposed name change before the new name was announced to the public on March 29. Multiple attempts to contact the Oakland officials to hold a meeting “went unanswered.”
” The Hill has reached out to the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners for comment.