In the USA, the city of San Francisco has filed a lawsuit against Oakland for renaming its airport to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport”

In the USA, the city of San Francisco has filed a lawsuit against Oakland for renaming its airport to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport”

Recently, in the United States, the city of San Francisco sued its neighboring city, Oakland, in the District Court for the Northern District of California, arguing that the initiative to rename its airport to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport” violates the trademark rights of the San Francisco airport. In addition, according to the lawsuit, Oakland’s use of “San Francisco” and “International Airport” together causes confusion among passengers and the general public.

The case began when the city of Oakland announced, on March 29, its intention to change the name of Oakland Metropolitan International Airport to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport”. The city justified the change as a way to increase passenger traffic at the airport, create jobs and boost economic activity in Oakland.

However, according to the lawsuit filed by the city of San Francisco, “it is very likely that travelers will become confused and buy tickets to the wrong airport, thinking that San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport is San Francisco Airport (SFO) and end up arriving at the wrong place”. The plaintiff claims that the city of Oakland is using the indication “San Francisco” to mistakenly attract travelers to its airport, unfairly reaping the benefits of the reputation and goodwill associated with the city, its neighbor.

Also, according to the plaintiff, the existence of a public transportation line connecting the two airports uses “San Francisco” as the direction in which the trains travel, and consumers are likely to be confused about which train to take, since both airports are at different ends of the line.

On the other hand, Oakland Airport argued that “the mark merely denotes the geographic location of Oakland Airport and is not an attempt to divert or confuse consumers”.

Thus, the city of San Francisco requested that the court block Oakland’s proposed name change and force airlines, ticket websites and others to stop using the airport’s new name, which would violate the airport’s trademark rights. In addition, the city requested an amount in moral and material damages as compensation for the damage caused to its reputation.

It is important to note that, in Brazil, article 124, X of the Industrial Property Law (Law 9279/1996) prohibits the registration of trademarks that induce false indication as to the origin, source, nature, quality or usefulness of the product or service for which the trademark is intended. However, trademarks whose word part includes geographical names that are not geographical indications (e.g. Guarulhos International Airport) can be registered, in accordance with article 181 of the same law, as long as they do not fall under the legal prohibition of the article 124, X.

The lawsuit can be accessed via the link: Case 3:24-cv-02311

Note: For quick release, this English version is provided by automated translation without human review.