Hey, there! Log in / Register
Court rules Boston neighborhood bank too dinky to prevent larger competitor from using similar name
By adamg on Sat, 02/11/2012 - 10:43am
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that Peoples Federal Savings Bank has no grounds to immediately bar the Connecticut-based People's United Bank from opening branches in the Boston area under that name.
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected the homegrown Peoples' request for a preliminary injunction because it failed to prove anybody outside the six specific neighborhoods and towns in which it has branches had heard of it or would be confused by the similar names, especially because other banks in eastern Massachusetts already used "People" as part of their names and because while its logo is green and yellow, Peoples United's is red and blue.
Its advertising efforts and community involvement, though significant, were found to be highly localized within the Boston city limits and nearby urban areas. Therefore, the district court concluded that Peoples Federal's mark was enforceable, but only "within Allston/Brighton, Brookline, Jamaica Plain, Norwood and West Roxbury . . . [and] not throughout all of Eastern Massachusetts, or even the rest of Middlesex, Suffolk and Norfolk counties."
People's United now has a branch in downtown Boston.
Ironically for a ruling that hinges on identity, the name of Peoples Federal's president is misspelled repeatedly.
Ed. note: We have a checking account at Peoples Federal, and our daughter always likes getting a lollipop at their West Roxbury branch.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
People's United has two branches in downtown Boston
or three if you count Cambridge Street as downtown. Also two in Back Bay.
Their Needham branch is pretty close to what the court considers to be Peoples Federal trademark territory.
It's hard for me to understand why this decision came out differently from the one involving TD Bank and Commerce Bank (of Worcester), which prevented TD BankNorth from rebranding as TD Commerce Bank.
Ironically for a ruling that
That is just so ironic, Alanis. How the (expletive) did you graduate from high school?
"an ironic event is an
"an ironic event is an incongruous event, one at odds with what might have been expected"
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ironic
Soooo....how is that wrong?
A classification of irony in
A classification of irony in this instance seems somewhat tenuous at best. It would be ironic if, say, the Peoples Federal president or lawyer was insisting on a potential for mistaken identity, and then named the person they were suing incorrectly. There is an element of pointed, implausible, or uncanny incongruity to irony, whereas this sounds more like mundane coincidence. At least, that's how I understand it. To be sure, it can be a fine line.
too small to succeed?
too small to succeed?
Expansion
So the judges have ruled that the smaller Peoples Federal Savings Bank cannot grow and expand under their current name but the larger People's United Bank can? It sounds like the Peoples Republic of China.