Truliant Seeks Injunction to Halt Rollout of Truist Brand

After BB&T and SunTrust announced last June they would be calling their merged bank “Truist Financial Corp.,” a news report about the plan aired on the television in the Old Richmond Grill in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Christopher Sostaita, who owns the meat and three restaurant, in addition to his work as youth pastor at the nearby Old Richmond Evangelical Methodist Church in Tobaccoville, perked up.

Since 2014 he had been a member of Truliant Federal Credit Union ($2.7 billion in assets, 254,373 members), which had its headquarters just 10 miles down the road in downtown Winston-Salem, and he wondered why Truliant would be involved in a bank merger.

“In addition, one morning at my restaurant while I was serving some customers, a television news report about the merger aired. After the news report, the customers and I talked about why Truliant was involved in a merger,” Sostaita said in a court affidavit.

Later, he recognized Todd Hall, Truliant’s president and a frequent customer, at the restaurant. “I took the opportunity to ask Mr. Hall about the merger. Mr. Hall assured me that Truliant was not involved in the merger.”

Confusion about the names “Truliant” and “Truist” is at the center of a trademark infringement battle Truliant is waging against the now-merged bank, based in Charlotte, N.C.

In a motion filed Feb. 7, Truliant asked the U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem for a preliminary injunction to prevent the bank from rolling out the name while the issue is being contested.

Truliant argued that getting such an injunction in these types of cases requires only showing the likelihood of consumer confusion. In its motion and supporting exhibits, it puts forth examples like the Old Richmond Grill story to show that the confusion is not only likely, but has already occurred, giving its demand more urgency.

“Truliant is likely to succeed on its claim of trademark infringement, but without a preliminary injunction it will likely suffer irreparable harm as a result of defendants’ infringement,” Truliant said in a 26-page brief supporting the motion.

BB&T Corp. of Winston-Salem announced in Feb. 2019 that it planned to acquire SunTrust Banks of Atlanta in an all-stock deal, then valued at $66 billion. It closed Dec. 6, and the bank ended 2019 with $229.9 billion in assets and a headquarters newly moved to Charlotte, N.C.

The “Truist” name was rolled out in June 2019, and Truliant filed the trademark infringement within two weeks.

Truist replied to the suit in December, asking the court to reject the infringement claims and declare it is free to call itself Truist Financial Corp. It argued that consumers wouldn’t be confused and Truliant was “improperly attempting to monopolize the common term ‘TRU-.’”

Lawyers for both sides met in January and agreed on a rough timetable that delays discovery for the main case until April 1, after discovery is completed for hearing the motion on the injunction. Discovery for the main case is expected to extend to year’s end.

Truliant’s motion for the injunction included a 113-page report by University of North Carolina business professor Nicholas M. Didow, who has specialized in market research and consumer behavior since the late 1970s.

Truliant commissioned Didow last year to study the effect the Truist name would have on consumers in North Carolina and parts of South Carolina and Virginia served by Truliant. Truist also serves those three states, plus 14 more.

Didow conducted both an online survey showing the marks in printed text and an in-person study in Charlotte presenting the marks orally. The net likelihood of confusion among consumers in the Truliant service area was 37.8% of online respondents and 61.7% of those in Charlotte who responded based on hearing the names.

Many of the respondents blamed their confusion on the similarity of the names. “The names sound the same,” one said.

On Jan. 13, Truist rolled out a new logo in “Truist Purple” — the combination of BB&T burgundy and SunTrust blue, but the Truist logo isn’t yet showing at branches.

“We have not delayed any of our brand efforts in relation to the suit,” Thomas A. Crosson, Truist’s director of media relations, said Wednesday.

“For now, we will continue to serve our clients through their respective BB&T or SunTrust ATM’s, branches, websites, mobile apps, financial advisors and relationship managers,” Crosson said. “It will be some time until you begin to see Truist signage or brand changes at many of our locations.”