Use of South Coast Name Draws Suit

What’s in a name? Apparently, at least half a million dollars, according to a federal lawsuit filed by Orange County developer C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.

Segerstrom & Sons, a family partnership that owns South Coast Plaza, has sued the owner of neighboring South Coast Town Square, claiming infringement of its trade name and service name.

Simply stated, the partnership contends that the name “South Coast Town Square”--chosen for a 50-store shopping center on Bristol Street one block north of South Coast Plaza--is too close for comfort.

South Coast Town Square “is using a confusingly similar name to that used by (Segerstrom)” at its three nearby centers, said John S. Olson, an attorney with Latham & Watkins, which represents Segerstrom & Sons.

The Segerstrom partnership operates South Coast Plaza, the county’s biggest shopping mall; South Coast Plaza Town Center, a business development across Bristol Street from the plaza, and South Coast Plaza Village, located across Sunflower Avenue.

The problem over names began earlier this year when James A. Carter and Sharon A. Carter, who do business as--and apparently own--South Coast Town Square, decided to change the name of their center.

Until April, the center had been known as Bristol Town & Country Shopping Center. At the time, the center’s general manager, Lawna Dillon, said the mall’s owners hoped the new name would bring an updated image. “The whole area now is known as the South Coast Metro area. So the merchants decided (the new name) would better establish” the center’s location, Dillon said at the time.

Dillon and attorneys for the Carters could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

But the Carters “were told before they put up signs not to use the (South Coast) name,” Olson said.

“There’s a very grave potential for confusion,” he said. “We certainly believe their decision is to take advantage of the good will we’ve built up using that name.”

Olson said the names “South Coast Plaza” and “South Coast Village” are registered with the secretary of state as service marks. But he added that “the names don’t have to be registered to bring this kind of (legal) action.”

He acknowledged that a number of other area businesses use the words South Coast in their names. But there is a difference in the case of South Coast Town Square, Olson said.

“No other shopping centers are using the name,” he said. “Here, we have a shopping center right next door using South Coast. . . . People already have called, wondering whether we operate the place across the street.”

Furthermore, he added, the Carters are not the first business operators who have been told not to use the South Coast name. The Segerstrom partnership “takes infringement very seriously,” Olson said.

The lawsuit, filed June 23 in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, has been assigned to Judge Stephen V. Wilson. It asks for an injunction, an undetermined amount of actual damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.