Americans don’t know geography, and can’t find Oakland on a map. So Oakland airport and San Francisco airport are locked in a legal battle over whether the Oakland airport can call itself “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”
The idea of the name change was to… reduce confusion? Passengers would see Oakland and think “I can fly there to go to San Francisco!” But it could also increase confusion because, wait, which one is the San Francisco airport?
Oakland renamed itself, and San Francisco International Airport claims this is a trademark violation. A judge in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California heard the claims on Thursday.
San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport née Oakland International Airport
San Francisco first filed the lawsuit in April, just days after Oakland’s Port Commission approved the name change for its airport. Then in September, San Francisco filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent Oakland from using its new name, citing potential confusion among travelers and irreparable harm to SFO airport’s reputation. (SFO, after all, is a pretty good airport – Oakland is.. Oakland.)
At the preliminary injunction hearing on Thursday, the attorney for San Francisco airport (the real one) argued that the original SFO has exclusive rights to the “San Francisco” name in the airport context – and the addition of “San Francisco Bay” to Oakland’s name creates confusion, leading travelers to book flights to the wrong airport, misdirecting ride-share drivers, and affecting the reputation of San Francisco itself although frankly I’m not sure the city’s reputation can fall much further than it already has. He demanded not just that Oakland not use the name – but also destroy any marketing materials they’ve produced.
Oakland airport’s lawyer responds that the name change simply communicates factual information about their physical proximity to the Bay – and does not imply any affiliation with SFO. The 9th Circuit legal standard, she argued, is customer confusion at point of purchase – and airlines are the airport’s customers. They aren’t confused.
San Francisco International Airport
Moreover, we know there’s not really passenger confusion because San Francisco airport’s traffic hasn’t been harmed by the name change. It’s grown since then. Furthermore, passengers search for flights to Oakland and even San Jose already when looking for travel to Northern California (though if this were universally true there’d be little reason for the change).
The magistrate judge took arguments for a preliminary injunction under advisement. While likelihood of consumer confusion matters, trademark protection doesn’t extend to every possible instance of confusion by a reasonable consumer. I’d point out,
- There are semi-regular stories of people buying tickets to Sydney, Nova Scotia instead of Sydney, Australia.
- DFW airport is called Dallas, not just Love Field! Orlando doesn’t like Melbourne-Orlando airport, but tough going…
- Meanwhile, Oakland airport actually borders the San Francisco Bay while the SFO airport is not in San Francisco proper but rather San Mateo County.
Baltimore’s BWI airport makes clear that it is part of the Washington, DC region – Baltimore Washington International. It used to be BAL for Baltimore and the story of how they changed involves geopolitical intrigue since BWI belonged to Papua New Guinea.
Fresno Yosemite Airport markets itself as a gateway to Yosemite National Park, so that visitors consider it rather than San Francisco or San Jose (which are more likely for many to have non-stop flights). They were unable to get their airport code changed, however. It’s still FAT (‘Fresno Air Terminal’), one of the world’s worst airport codes alongside Sioux City, Iowa; Fukuoka, Japan; Kochi, India; and Pensacola, Florida.
And European low cost carriers have long promoted Bratislava as Vienna even though it’s literally in another country!
Total waste of human intellect on this stupid endeavor
Laughingstock that harms the profession of law
There are definitely other regions that have similar naming issues.
In the NYC area: United often markets flights to EWR as “New York/Newark”. Depending on traffic, it may actually be faster to Manhattan from EWR than JFK (each is within 15 miles).
Westchester (HPN), Islip (ISP), and Stewart (SWF) are sometimes included as ‘NYC area,’ but if you are including those, you might as well add Philadelphia (PHL), also about 2 hours away.
In the DC area: Dulles (IAD) and Baltimore (BWI) are often marketed as “Washington, D.C.” but they are far away (about 30 miles). Even Reagan (DCA), which is closest, is technically also in Virginia.
Overseas, there are so many airports that market themselves as “London” including: Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), City (LCY), Luton (LTN), Stansted (STN), etc. I cannot think of a city with more airports.
Oh, how I wish I could forget, Florida.
Southeast Florida: Miami (MIA), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), and Palm Beach (PBI). A whopping 70 miles apart. At one point, Emirates operated from FLL, but marketed it as “Miami/Fort Lauderdale” and Norwegian/Norse did a similar thing.
Central Florida: There is Orlando (MCO), but also Sanford (SFB), which also markets itself as Orlando, even though it is over 25 miles from downtown Orlando and 50 miles from Disney World.
Then there’s Tampa (TPA) and St. Pete-Clearwater (PIE), also under 15 miles from each other. For those who like aviation history, the first commercial flight actually took place on January 1, 1914, with the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, a short flight, indeed.
LOLOL,uhhh, what about Los Angeles area’s FIVE: LAX, BUR, LGB, SNA, and ONT??? Only one is actually in LA, but they ALL claim “LA area.”
OAK needs to find another name, besides International.
Merritt International Airport (if they insist on International)
San Francisco Merritt Airport
San Francisco Metropolitan Airport
San Francisco East Bay Airport
Golden Gate Airport (ok, a bit deceptive)
San Francisco Coliseum Airport
How about “Poop on the Street Airport” and “Violent Crime Airport”.
Oh wait, that wouldn’t clear it up either…
BUR: Originally, the entire airport was within the Burbank city limits, but the north end of Runway 15/33 has been extended into the city of Los Angeles (from Wikipedia).
I agree the name is confusing and San Francisco Airport has prior claim. Maybe it should be Oakland International Airport at San Francisco Bay so people don’t get confused with Oakland County, MI.
I grew up in the D.C. area, and I don’t remember anyone being confused by BWI. I have full confidence that the people of the bay area will not be confused by the name change.
HHN (Frankfurt-Hahn) probably takes the cake for most misleading airport. Almost 95km as the bird flies and over 100km driving from FRA (and a little further to the Frankfurt CBD). Traffic aside, anyone “accidentally” flying to OAK instead of SFO isn’t tragically inconvenienced the way someone flying to HHN vs. FRA would be.
I wish I had never read these comments.
I flew for the majorest? of airlines for 5 years before I figured out that
John Wayne, Santa Anna and Orange County were the same airport.
“wait, which one is the San Francisco airport?”
They both are. OAK is closer to a large part of the SF population, and more of SF Bay population.
“(SFO, after all, is a pretty good airport – Oakland is.. Oakland.)”
Ouch! Sounds like someone who doesn’t live or visit the East Bay. Unfortunate stigmas aside, OAK is a great airport if you value convenience and are based in or visit the East Bay or the northernmost part of SF. It’s nowhere near as glitzy as SFO, but if your goal is to spend as little time in the airport as possible, OAK is a better bet.
@ Thing 1 — LOL
If there is a God, Oakland loses this case….
Having grown up on the West Coast, I don’t see much confusion here at all. I think it’s ridiculous for SFO to claim that its name is a trademark but I also think it’s a little weird for Oakland to start its new name with the words “San Francisco.”. I think a reasonable resolution would be for OAK to call itself “Oakland-San Francisco Bay International Airport.”.
San Francisco International Airport is also right on San Francisco Bay.
Cunard Line operates ships out of Southampton, UK, about an hour and a half train ride southwest of London. Yet, maps in their brochures indicate that they serve “London” rather than Southampton. In the past (decades ago) there were dedicated Boat Trains between London Waterloo Station and the pier in Southampton, but those are long gone and passengers make own arrangements for transfer between the two. It seems a bit confusing.