The Port of Oakland's Board of Commissioners took their controversial vote on Thursday, and it was unanimous. They want to change the name of Oakland Airport to "San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport," and San Francisco is going to have some words with them.

The war of words actually started two weeks ago, and continued on Monday with SF City Attorney David Chiu threatening a trademark lawsuit — because, as of a decade ago, San Francisco trademarked San Francisco International Airport, and SFO has used that term or "San Francisco Airport" exclusively since 1927.

From the Port of Oakland's perspective, they just want to raise awareness among international and domestic travelers of Oakland Airport's proximity to the Bay Area and San Francisco Bay itself — but you can see how people could be confused.

Oakland Airport's code would remain OAK, but when the full new airport name starts with "San Francisco Bay Oakland," confusion with SFO seems inevitable too.

"We are standing up for Oakland and the East Bay," says Port Commission President Barbara Leslie in a statement following Thursday's vote. "This will boost inbound travelers' geographic awareness of the airport by highlighting the airport's location on the San Francisco Bay. This name will make it clear that OAK is the closest major airport, for 4.1 million people, three national laboratories, the top public university in the country, and California's Wine Country."

Is it the closest, though, if you're trying to get to San Francisco?

The name change will not become official until May 9th, when the port commissioners have scheduled a second reading and vote on the name, as KPIX reports.

SF City Attorney David Chiu issued a statement Thursday saying, "We are disappointed that Oakland did not take the opportunity to work collaboratively with us to develop alternative names and to avoid litigation. We will have further updates in the coming days."

Chiu said earlier this week that the city would certainly pursue legal action to prevent this name change from occurring.

"In addition to the immense confusion and chaos the renaming would cause for travelers and consumers generally, this proposal also infringes on SFO’s trademark,” Chiu said. "We want to see the entire Bay Area thrive as a tourist destination and expand our offerings to visitors, but this proposal is not a legal or practical way to go about it. If Oakland moves forward with this proposal, San Francisco will pursue legal action to prevent misuse of our trademark."

There is an environmental group called the Stop OAK Expansion Coalition that has been arguing against the Port of Oakland's ongoing plans to expand the airport. And a member of the group, David Foecke, tells the Chronicle that this whole name-change effort seems to be a desperate attempt to drum up more traffic to justify that expansion project while traffic at the airport is actually declining, particularly among business travelers.

"They’re faced with the reality that they’re planning an expansion based on market demands that are not materializing," Foecke tells the paper. "So they have to find another reason to justify their expansion. Their idea about how to justify an expansion that is not the result of their own market demands, is to steal passengers from San Francisco."

The Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners seems to be ready for this fight, but how far will this actually get? Stockton Airport tried something similar back in 2017, trying to change its name to San Francisco-Stockton Regional Airport, and that got shot down. And really how many airports can we have that have "San Francisco" in the name before this gets ridiculous?

"Really, it's about bringing the geographic location to Oakland," says the Port of Oakland's interim director of aviation, Craig Simon, speaking to ABC 7. "Getting people to understand where Oakland sits in the Bay Area. We continue to hear from our airlines and our airline partners that they struggle getting people on airplanes inbound to Oakland airport."

Tricking them into thinking it's SFO may not be the answer.

Previously: SF City Attorney Threatens Lawsuit Over Plan to Add 'San Francisco' to Oakland Airport Name