Judge Orders Oakland Airport To Remove San Francisco From Name

Oakland, California, is part of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. It is on the east side of San Francisco Bay, across from San Francisco.

Given Oakland’s location, it made sense that its airport rebranded earlier this year as the “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport” to attract more business and increase appeal.

This move immediately incited pushback from the City of San Francisco and its airport, which pursued legal action and called for “San Francisco” to be dropped from Oakland Airport’s name. The latest updates have arisen regarding what will become Oakland Airport’s official name.

Name Change Blocked

Earlier this week, a federal judge officially granted San Francisco’s motion for a “preliminary injunction” against Oakland.

A preliminary injunction is a court order that prevents one party from taking specific actions until a court can decide on a lawsuit. 

In this case, Oakland Airport is prevented from keeping "San Francisco" in its name. The Port of Oakland will immediately have to drop it from the airport’s name and not use it in any promotions or products.

The judge decided that San Francisco, the city, and the airport would suffer “irreparable harm” from Oakland Airport’s name change. Furthermore, it was ruled that Oakland violated San Francisco’s trademark for the airport name.

An explanation by the judge makes the decision even more explicit, saying that Oakland was ordered to change its airport’s name:

“Because the two airports offer identical services, the near identity of the marks makes them confusingly similar when there is no affiliation, connection, or association between the Oakland airport and San Francisco is contrary to how airports in the United States are normally named.”

To add insult to injury (in Oakland’s case), the judge further ruled that “The Port [of Oakland] has taken San Francisco's valuable Mark [i.e., its name] and applied it to a smaller, less successful, and lower-rated airport."

While it may seem otherwise, the judge did not entirely favor San Francisco in his decision. While the name change decision favored San Francisco, the city’s claims that Oakland Airport's name change would cause point-of-sale and initial interest confusion were not accepted.

Specifically, the judge determined it would be difficult to see how people booking online would mistake the two airports and buy a ticket to the wrong one. This is especially true considering the airport codes are distinct (OAK vs. SFO), and their respective locations are also listed when they are searched online.

Oakland’s Response

The Port of Oakland soon responded to the judge’s ruling when it released the following statement:

“The court’s ruling found that two of the three types of confusion alleged by SFO were without merit. The court order temporarily blocks OAK’s new name based on the third type of alleged confusion: that travelers may think OAK is affiliated with SFO.”

“OAK is not associated with SFO, of course, but is a convenient and centrally-located option for travelers throughout the Bay Area. We continue reviewing the recent ruling and considering all available options.”

Despite being far from city centers, many airports will still add a significant city’s name to attract business. We have seen this with Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) and New York Stewart International Airport (SWF).

Despite having the major city names included, Rockford and Newburgh (where SWF is) are considerable distances from Chicago and New York City, respectively.

Oakland tried to follow the same reasoning. However, data showing whether the addition of “San Francisco” increased the airport’s popularity has not been publicly released.

What do you make of this news? Should Oakland Airport continue to be allowed to mention "San Francisco Bay" in its name?