South Coast Plaza Receives Federal Trademark as The Ultimate Shopping Resort

COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 2004--South Coast Plaza has received notification from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that its application for trademark registration as "The Ultimate Shopping Resort(R)" has been accepted, making it the only shopping center in the United States entitled to use that designation.

Applying for the trademark registration was a two-year process. The idea was the brainchild of Werner Escher, South Coast Plaza's executive director of international and domestic markets. "If you look at the travel destination we've become, we're more than just a mall," he said. "Without being arrogant or elite, we really feel that 'shopping resort' defines the difference between us and others," he added.

“If I could steal anything from Orange County for Los Angeles, it would be South Coast Plaza.”

According to the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau, tourists spend $6.8 billion annually in Orange County. Twenty percent of that money changes hands at malls and shopping centers. With over $1.1 billion in annual sales, South Coast Plaza, The Ultimate Shopping Resort(R), is one of the largest revenue generators among U.S. shopping centers.

Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., said, "If I could steal anything from Orange County for Los Angeles, it would be South Coast Plaza."