Huntington Beach wins 'Surf City' legal battle

By: North County Times wire services - | Saturday, January 26, 2008 7:07 PM PST ∞

HUNTINGTON BEACH - Residents of California may sleep soundly tonight: the great "Surf City" war between north and south is over, and Huntington Beach won, it was reported today.

The Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau has apparently prevailed in its legal battle to protect its "Surf City USA" trademark, with a T-shirt shop owner from Santa Cruz apparently yielding in his years-long battle.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported today that shop owner Bruce Noland will drop his copyright infringement suit against the Orange County agency, and will drop any claim to the "Surf City USA" moniker.

Noland has promised to stop selling "Santa Cruz Surf City" shirts.

Neither side admitted liability, and several years' worth of nasty suits and counter-suits were dropped as a result of a new legal settlement, the Santa Cruz paper reported.

"It's kind of ridiculous it went this far because we share the Pacific Ocean," Noland told the paper.

At one point, cease-and-desist letters were flying up and down the coast as lawyers in both cities tried to protect the slogan. At one point, Huntington Beach won a subpoena ordering its Santa Cruz County counterpart hand over all communications and material related to Surf City, including custom-made M&M candies with the words Santa Cruz Surf City printed on them.

The battle gained national acclaim as the two cities, which share little in common other than their mutual locations on the Pacific Ocean in California, battled it out. O.C. surfers belittled their northern counterparts as wet-suit-clad poseurs, and noted that the singing duo Jan and Dean were singing about sunny Southern California shores in their 1963 hit, "Surf City."

Huntington Beach officials could not be reached for comment. But officials in Santa Cruz worried that Huntington Beach will go after the 19 or so Santa Cruz businesses using such names as Surf City Chiropractic, Surf City Motors, and The Great Steak and Potato Surf City Squeeze.

The new slogan on Noland's shirts, being sold for $17 on the Santa Cruz pier? "Surf City Santa Cruz, California, USA, Original."

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