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.”
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Pam 01.30.08 | 10:46 PM ET
Huntington Beach has always been know as Surf City,USA…since I can remember,since the 60’s and how about all the songs about Surf City USA
Vaughn 02.10.08 | 1:31 PM ET
“All the songs about Surf City USA”? There was never ANY song called “Surf City USA”.
There was ONE song called “Surf City” which did not refer to Huntington Beach, and was “not about any particular place”, according to the author Dean Torrence.
There was ONE song called “Surfin’ USA”, which mentions Santa Cruz, and does NOT mention Huntington Beach.
Another confused reader.