Bank Claims It Is Truly Free to Use Truist Name
The $450 billion institution resulting from the merger of BB&T and SunTrust denies Truliant Credit Union’s infringement claim.
The bank spawned by the merger of BB&T and SunTrust wants a federal court to declare it is free to call itself Truist Financial Corp. and reject trademark infringement claims by Truliant Federal Credit Union.
Truliant ($2.6 billion in assets, 251,233 members) filed its suit in the U.S. District Court near its Winston-Salem, N.C., headquarters on June 16, seeking to stop the giant bank from using the Truist name, claiming it would be infringing on Truliant’s trademarks, including its name and products that carry the “Tru” prefix.
The credit union said consumers are likely to confuse Truist with Truliant, especially because the bank offers similar families of financial services and is prominent throughout the area served by Truliant: Primarily North Carolina, along with parts of South Carolina and Virginia.
In a 28-page answer filed Wednesday, Truist said Truliant is “improperly attempting to monopolize the common term “TRU-.” Truist cited numerous examples of banks, credit unions and other businesses adopting the prefix “Tru” in their names without confusing consumers.
“The truth of the matter is that no one can exclusively own the term “TRU,” the bank said in the court filing. “In this crowded field, consumers can easily differentiate among these various uses of ‘TRU.’”
BB&T announced in February plans to acquire SunTrust Banks of Atlanta. On June 4 the banks announced they would call the new entity Truist Financial. BB&T completed the acquisition Dec. 6, took on its new name, Truist Financial Corp., and moved the headquarters to Charlotte, N.C.
The combination now has about $450 billion in assets, making it the sixth-largest U.S. commercial bank, serving approximately 10 million consumer households.
Truist’s answer includes images of 61 company and credit union logos that use “Tru” or “True.” Credit unions include:
- TruChoice Federal Credit Union, Portland, Maine ($148.5 million, 12,109 members)
- TruEnergy Federal Credit Union, Springfield, Va. ($122.5 million, 8,716 members)
- TruGrocer, Boise, Idaho ($265.2 million, 26,537 members)
- Truity Federal Credit Union, Bartlesville, Okla. ($832.3 million, 69,525 members)
- TruMark Financial Credit Union, Fort Washington, Pa. ($2.3 billion, 121,952 members)
- TruNorth Federal Credit Union, Ishpeming, Mich. ($151.1 million, 16,712 members)
- TruPartner Credit Union, Cincinnati ($152.9 million, 17,234 members)
- TruService Community Federal Credit Union, Little Rock, Ark. ($38.8 million, 5,291 members)
- TruStar Federal Credit Union, International Falls, Minn. ($249.3 million, 16,265 members)
- TruStone Financial Federal Credit Union, Plymouth, Minn. ($1.5 billion, 107,719 members)
- TruWest Credit Union, Scottsdale, Ariz. ($1.2 billion, 93,049 members).
Truist also said in the court filing that its name is different than Truliant. “It is a shorter name, consisting of two syllables, and ending in –IST.”
Truist said it went through “an extensive, three-month naming process with one of the world’s leading branding firms to develop a unique and memorable name,” and spent another five months working on branding to stand out in the market as different than any other financial institution.
“With all due respect to Plaintiff’s employees, Defendant does not want to be confused with them or any other financial institution,” the bank said.
The bank also said it recently shared its planned new logo with Truliant under a non-disclosure agreement because it has not yet been publicly unveiled.
“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. There is no risk that anyone would confuse these marks in context in actual marketplace use,” the bank said.
Truliant President Todd Hall issued a statement Wednesday night saying the credit union disagrees with the bank’s claims. He said the bank does not address confusion that might occur from online searches.
“Our claims are not just simply related to the presentation of Truist’s visible logo,” Hall said. “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.”