SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — The city of San Francisco sued the city of Oakland Thursday afternoon over Oakland’s plan to change the name of its airport to include “San Francisco.”
Downtown Oakland is about 10 miles from San Francisco. The city’s airport is currently named the Metropolitan Oakland International Airport (OAK). Last week, the Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to preliminarily approve a plan that would give the airport a new name: San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.
“This will boost inbound travelers' geographic awareness of the airport by highlighting the airport's location on the San Francisco Bay," Port Commission president Barbara Leslie said in a statement following the April 11 vote. "This name will make it clear that OAK is the closest major airport, for 4.1 million people, three national laboratories, the top public university in the country, and California's Wine Country."
San Francisco City Attorney Daniel Chiu filed the federal trademark infringement suit Thursday afternoon. According to the complaint, the name change infringes the trademark of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and will confuse travelers, especially foreign travelers whose first language is not English.
According to the complaint, San Francisco has owned the U.S. federal trademark registration for the mark "San Francisco International Airport" with the first date of use in commerce in 1954.
San Francisco wants a federal judge to order an immediate stop to the use of the proposed name and a declaration that Oakland has infringed SFO's mark. The city also wants Oakland ordered to destroy any materials containing the new name, as well as unspecified fees and damages.
“We had hoped Oakland would come to its senses, but their refusal to collaborate on an acceptable alternative name leaves us no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect SFO's trademark," Chiu said in a statement. "This new name will cause confusion and chaos for travelers, which will damage the travel industry for the entire region. We are already seeing at least one airline use the new name, indicating that SFO has already suffered economic harm.”
That airline is Azores Airlines, a Portuguese airline that operates scheduled domestic and international flights from the Azores to mainland Portugal, the Madeira Islands, Europe, and North America.
Chiu said he wants to see the Bay Area thrive as a tourist destination but that the renaming “is not a legal or practical way to go about it.”
San Francisco says that in the three weeks since the announcing of the name change, Oakland has refused to listen to San Francisco’s concerns about harms to SFO and confusion for travelers.
The Port of Oakland announced on March 29 that it was considering a name change for the Oakland airport. According to the complaint, Oakland told the SFO airport director of the proposed name change only 30 minutes before issuing the press release.
A second reading for the proposed name change is scheduled for May 9, at which point the Port Commission could give its final approval and the formal process of renaming the airport could start.
“OAK's proposed renaming does not infringe upon SFO's mark," a Port of Oakland spokesperson said. "We will vigorously defend our right to claim our spot on the San Francisco Bay. We are standing up for Oakland and our East Bay community.”
Oakland wants to rename the airport in an attempt to get more passengers to fly into Oakland and to improve passengers’ experiences. Even though the city sits on San Francisco Bay and is close to San Francisco, Oakland’s airport sees a fraction of the traffic that SFO does.
Oakland International Airport welcomed 11.2 million passengers in 2023, while SFO saw 50 million passengers last year.
The press release announcing the proposed name change said that the airport “consistently hears from local travelers about their desire for more direct flights to domestic and global destinations. To make this happen, travelers who live outside the region need to learn that OAK is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and close to the region’s top destinations.”
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