Santa Cruz trademark “Surf City” lawsuit to end
Santa Cruz trademark “Surf City” lawsuit to end.
A Santa Cruz businessman has been fighting to use the name “Surf City, USA” for the past several years. The moniker has been used for Santa Cruz for approximately a century. In keeping with laid back Santa Cruz’s demeanor, no one thought to trademark it. I am guessing the feeling was it was like “windy city” or “motor city” or other monikers that are used for quite awhile and have no particular “ownership” claimed by anyone. While I can’t speak for the aforementioned names being trademarked or not, the point is made.
The feud was started because a southern California city, Huntington Beach, filed for that trademark in 2005, and since Santa Cruz was unaware of the claim didn’t challenge it. They then informed a local businessman who sells T shirts to tourists on Santa Cruz wharf to cease and desist from selling the “Surf City USA” T-shirts. Noland, the gift shop businessman fired back, essentially, buzz off. Santa Cruz has been called “Surf City” long before Huntington Beach and long before the name was memorialized in the Beach Boys song of the same name. They did not have Santa Cruz in mind when they penned the song. Nevertheless, that was only in the 60’s. To read more of the interesting history of Santa Cruz, and Huntington Beach, California, follow the links.
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Date: 2008-01-28 16:57:47
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