Haynes Boone Partner Ken Parker spoke with Bloomberg Law and Wolters Kluwer as neighboring cities with airports along the San Francisco Bay face off in federal court over whether the name “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport” violates San Francisco’s trademark.
Read an excerpt from Bloomberg Law:
Even sophisticated consumers might be misled, especially when airport names are truncated on mobile devices, Parker told Bloomberg. If a judge can imagine themselves buying tickets to the wrong airport, he said, they might be more receptive to San Francisco’s arguments.
“It’s true that San Francisco is a geographic indicator, but when you pair it with ‘International Airport’ in a phrase, you know, it doesn’t help much for Oakland to stick a couple of names in the middle of it,” Parker said.
To read the full article from Bloomberg Law, click here.
Read an excerpt from Wolters Kluwer:
In commenting to IP Law Daily about the decision, Haynes Boone IP litigation Partner Ken Parker observed that while the court ultimately reached the correct decision, it got there “through a circuitous route.” According to Parker, the court’s “limitation of a finding of likelihood confusion to the issue of affiliation gives Oakland a decent shot on appeal if Oakland wants to head in that direction.”
Parker also highlighted the court’s view that San Francisco’s partially flawed likelihood of confusion survey methodology doomed a finding of potential confusion as to actual ticket purchases. “That finding highlights the high-stakes nature of using surveys in the preliminary injunction context,” Parker said.
Read the full article from Wolters Kluwer here.
