Huntington Beach, Thy Name Should Not be ‘Surf City USA’
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.30.08 | 7:41 AM ET
Photo by We’ve been writing about nation branding quite a bit, but here’s a ridiculous story involving tourism and city branding. Thanks to a settlement, the city of Huntington Beach can officially call itself “Surf City USA.”
The city had been squabbling with the owner of a surf shop in Santa Cruz who’d been selling “Surf City USA” T-shirts. Huntington Beach had hit the shop owner with a cease-and-desist order, claiming it had trademarked the “Surf City USA” moniker. In response, the shop owner sued Huntington Beach. Back in 2005, I proposed what I thought was a fair compromise. Nobody listened.
And now, they’ve settled, leaving Huntington Beach with the right to use the name.
But really, in a true “Surf City USA,” attorneys would be so stoked after surfing the city’s tasty waves each morning they’d forget about such petty disputes. How about this one: “Huntington Beach: Most Litigious Surf City USA.”