Oakland's Airport Has a New Name, and a Lawsuit Against SF to Back It Up

With the Oakland airport’s name change now in effect, port officials have answered a lawsuit filed by San Francisco with a suit of their own, asking a judge to rule that the new name does not infringe on a trademark held by the city across the bay.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, was announced immediately following a unanimous second vote by Oakland’s Board of Port Commissioners to rename Metropolitan Oakland International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.

Mary Richardson, the Port of Oakland’s attorney, said Oakland’s lawsuit is a means of getting a judge to affirm Oakland’s right to use the new name and speeding up what could otherwise be a lengthy legal battle.

“The port is suing the city and County of San Francisco for a court declaration that the port can lawfully use the now board-approved name San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. That the new name … does not infringe on SFO’s purported mark, and that neither SFO nor the City and County of San Francisco have the exclusive right to use or trademark the San Francisco Bay,” Richardson said.

San Francisco sued Oakland last month, arguing that the name infringes on the trademark of San Francisco International Airport and would cause confusion among travelers. City Attorney David Chiu told KQED ahead of the final vote that his office would seek a preliminary injunction to stop the name’s implementation until the lawsuit is settled, should the vote pass.

The name change is already in effect, and Richardson said the port is immediately moving forward with changing signage and communicating with airlines and travel agencies to update their records. The full implementation could take months.

“Importantly, unlike SFO, the port is not seeking money damages. At this point, we’re not seeking anything other than a declaration that we can continue to use the name that the board approved,” Richardson said.

Both sides have expressed their disappointment with each other and argued that an alternative resolution could have been reached.

“We want to see the entire Bay Area thrive as a tourist destination and expand our offerings to visitors, but this proposal is not a legal or practical way to go about it,” Chiu said in a public letter to the port days before commissioners’ first vote on the change in early April.

Richardson said Port of Oakland executives “did reach out to SFO executive leadership early on. … Those conversations were proceeding for a little bit of time,” she said. “However, the threats of litigation from the city attorney really stifled those conversations.”

San Francisco filed its lawsuit a week after the port’s initial vote, saying that their attempts to collaborate had gone ignored.

The San Francisco city attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment following Thursday’s vote.