S.F. City Attorney Files Preliminary Injunction Against Oakland Airport Name Change

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced on Tuesday that he has filed a preliminary injunction against the City of Oakland and Port of Oakland over the renaming of Oakland International Airport (OAK) to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, asking the federal court to have the airport immediately stop using the new name.

The name change plan from “Oakland International Airport” to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport” was released in late March, as the Globe reported. According to Oakland Airport officials, the airport’s name is often confusing for travelers, as the name of the airport fails to give the impression just how close the airport is to San Francisco. That lack of understanding, according to airport officials, have also cost the airport major airline routes and passengers. While officials have said that the airport will not be changing their airport code away from OAK or any Oakland visual branding, it would create an overall identity change.

San Francisco and San Francisco Airport officials quickly denounced the name proposal, saying it would only confuse travelers with a mix up over the San Francisco Airport name. Many travelers would also likely book wrongly because of the name change, constituting lost connections and a long travel distance between airports.

A back and forth between the cities ensued, with Oakland claiming the name was more geographic than anything else. However, the name change proved to be very unpopular across the Bay, with groups such as the NAACP and many tech companies coming out in opposition. As the April 11th vote by the Port of Oakland neared, Chiu warned them that they would be filing a lawsuit if the name change was approved.

Despite the impending lawsuit and the majority of Bay area residents and lawmakers opposed to the name change, the Port of Oakland went ahead and approved the new name in mid-April in a unanimous vote. Less than a week later, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed a lawsuit against Oakland over trademark infringement. Despite the litigation, Oakland went ahead in May and unanimously voted to change the name. San Francisco then vowed to file a preliminary injunction.

Chiu files Injunction

Over the past several months, confusion over the name change has caused many travelers to go to the wrong airport, as predicted by San Francisco, solely because of the name change.

“My mom was furious with the Oakland Airport,” said Jessica Martinez, whose mother flew in from Mexico for the first time and was confused by the name change. “I was waiting at San Francisco for hours until she called in, finally finding out it was Oakland. Do you know how long a drive is from those two airports? And when I got there, she said others were waiting too because of the name change as well. There is no way I’m ever flying into Oakland ever again after that. I also really want to bill Oakland Airport for the charge on my car I had to pay for.”

Meanwhile, City and County of San Francisco v. City of Oakland and Port of Oakland continued to go through the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, with both parties agreeing to formal mediation. San Francisco even held off the injunction, giving Oakland the benefit of the doubt. However, the August 27th mediation ended up going nowhere, leading San Francisco to go back towards a preliminary injunction to stop the name change. This led to the filing of the injunction by Chiu on Tuesday.

“We are already seeing traveler confusion around the use of Oakland’s new name,” said Chiu in a statement. “This was entirely predictable and preventable. We tried to reason with Oakland officials to avoid litigation and come up with alternative names that would work for all of us. Unfortunately, those efforts were not productive, and we have no choice but to ask the court to step in and protect our trademark. San Francisco has invested millions in making San Francisco International Airport the world class airport it is today. We have built an incredible brand that we must protect. Oakland has a trademark for Oakland International Airport. It should use that and stay away from San Francisco’s brand.”

SFO Airport Director Ivar C. Satero added that “We have observed multiple incidents of customer confusion resulting from Oakland Airport’s rebranding. We thank the City Attorney’s Office for taking this action to prevent further customer disservice at both airports.”

OAK’s reaction

The Port of Oakland quickly responded later on Tuesday to San Francisco’s actions, with Attorney Mary Richardson saying that “The recent injunctive relief request by the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is a continuation of tactics rooted in publicity and anti-competitive bullying rather than on legal merits. The Port of Oakland, which owns and operates OAK, filed a counterclaim against SFO and has not yet received a response. In fact, at SFO’s request, OAK had agreed to extensions for SFO to respond to OAK’s claims. Unfortunately, it appears that SFO sought to manufacture confusion under the cloak of legal filings and try to erase OAK from the map.

“It’s unfortunate that the SF City Attorney’s Office filed suit prematurely and continues to focus its efforts on litigation. The fact that SFO waited more than four months after the official name change to file this injunctive relief request shows a complete lack of urgency about any alleged harm. It is simply the latest example of the City Attorney attempting to sow confusion instead of responding to the merits of our Board’s action to rightly associate our Airport with the San Francisco Bay, which cannot be trademarked.

“Let’s be clear – this lawsuit, which now includes a request aimed at immediately stopping OAK from rightly using its location on the San Francisco Bay in its name – is not an attempt by SFO to prevent confusion. Instead, it’s nothing more than an attempt to stifle competition and travel choices by Bay Area residents and position SFO as the only airport that serves the San Francisco Bay Area. It is not, and OAK will continue to aggressively fight for its position on the San Francisco Bay. Bay Area residents and visitors alike will have better flying choices when there is widespread industry and consumer recognition that OAK is located on the San Francisco Bay and serves the Bay Area region too.”

Legal experts told the Globe on Wednesday that San Francisco still has the stronger case by far, with Oakland taking advantage of San Francisco’s willingness to wait a few months on filing an injunction to go through mediation first.

“I hate to use this term, but it was a real ‘ambulance chaser’ move Oakland pulled there, wasting time like that, added aviation lawyer Sarah Granger to the Globe on Wednesday. “And it kind of hurt them, as San Francisco now has more evidence that it is causing flyer confusion. So now not only do they have trademark infringement, they have proof showing how big of a mess for flyers this is causing.

“Oakland obviously made a huge mistake in the name change, but they put so much money into rebranding that they don’t want to budge. Oakland doesn’t have much on their side here and they know it. And if the injunction is successful, Oakland will have to go back to their old name.”

The ruling on the preliminary injunction is due out soon.