WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.–In its response to a lawsuit alleging trademark infringement, the newly formed Truist Financial Corp. says Truliant FCU is “improperly” attempting to “monopolize a common term,” while the credit union has responding by saying the bank is making a “clear and intentional appropriation of its name.”
As CUToday.info has reported, Truliant FCU filed its lawsuit against the bank created by the merger of BB&T and SunTrust shortly after it announced the name it had selected in June. The bank is based in Charlotte, where Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Truliant has a strong presence.
In its response to the Truliant lawsuit, Truist has filed a 28-page response that argues the credit union is “improperly attempt to monopolize the common term ‘Tru-.’”
“But the truth of the matter is that no one can exclusively own the term ‘Tru’,” the bank said.
In its suit Truliant has asked that Truist be prevented from using the Truist name in its retail and online channels. The bank has yet to introduce its color scheme, the Truist logo or any signage, saying those will be rolled out in early 2020.
In its response to the Truliant suit, however, the bank said it has provided its proposed logo and other trademarks to the credit union under a non-disclosure agreement.
“The marks — as actually used in the marketplace — could not be more dissimilar, not only in terms of appearance, sound and meaning, but also logo, color scheme, design and stylization,” Truist said in its suit. “There is no risk that anyone would confuse these marks in context in actual marketplace use.”
The bank has asked the federal court to dismiss the Truliant complaint with prejudice, meaning it can’t be re-filed, and to further declare Truist is not infringing on Truliant and that Truliant “does not own the exclusive rights to use the unregistered ‘Tru’ designations.”
Truliant Response
“We profoundly disagree with the merged banks’ extraordinary counter claims,” said Truliant FCU CEO Todd Hall in a statement. “This is a clear and intentional appropriation of Truliant’s name and brand equity by a directly overlapping geographic competitor.
“Unfortunately, today’s filing does not address a key concern of Truliant: confusion when no visual brand elements are present,” Hall continued. “Our claims are not just simply related to the presentation of Truist’s visible logo. We continue to foresee difficulty as our brands are applied in non-visual applications throughout the evolving digital marketplace. We strongly believe consumers will be led down the wrong path while interacting with voice tech, digital assistants, machine learning, and artificial intelligence – especially considering our market overlap and the similar strategies employed to develop digital experiences.”
Hall further said “it does not appear that the merged banks are interested in working toward an amicable negotiation of this matter through further discussion, as was our expectation. Truliant moves with determination into the next phase of more formal proceedings. We remain firm in efforts to defend our brand and the interests of our 250,000 member-owners.”