WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.–With the Truist Financial Corp. brand scheduled to make its debut tomorrow, the bank has made a blanket denial of claims made by Truliant Federal Credit Union in a lawsuit it filed over alleged trademark infringement.
Truist is the brand name selected by the institution created by merger of BB&T Corp. and SunTrust Banks. The merged bank will have $463.7 billion in total assets and operate a 17-state branch network, headquartered in North Carolina.
The $2.6-billion Truliant FCU has filed suit arguing the new name will create confusion in the market. Truliant filed its lawsuit just five days after the bank announced its new name. The bank said the dictionary defines Truist as “unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness.”
What Bank Wants
The banks want the federal court for the Middle District of N.C. to dismiss the Truliant complaint with prejudice, meaning it can’t be re-filed, reported the Winston-Salem Journal.
As CUToday.info has reported, Truliant said the Truist name is most likely to create confusion in the digital marketplace, with Truliant President Todd Hall saying that “when a consumer searches online for a Truliant location or information about a Truliant product or service, while typing in ‘Truliant’ a search engine may automatically populate results including ‘Truist’ and redirect consumers to that entity, especially given the direct geographic overlap in the respective markets.”
What Bank Acknowledges
The banks acknowledge in the response that Truliant has trademarks for “credit union services,” as well as Truliant’s trademark for “Truliances” covers automobile buying, insurance agency, financial planning and investment brokerage services, the Winston-Salem Journal stated.
But the banks denied Truliant’s allegation that they “are attempting to establish a brand reputation and goodwill in the Truist mark in advance of completion of the merger.”
In addition, the banks deny Truliant’s allegations of the likelihood of consumer confusion between Truliant and Truist, in particular because Truist would be a large super-regional bank and Truliant a credit union, according to the report.