Round two goes to First Niagara bank in name fight
Insurance firm seeks to control name
A federal appeals court has affirmed an administrative trademark ruling enabling First Niagara Financial Group to register the “First Niagara” name as a service mark, despite opposition from a similarly named insurance broker.
The unanimous ruling by the U. S. Court of Appeals, which did not issue an opinion, upheld a previous decision more than a year ago by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, an arm of the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office.
That June 2007 ruling, and this week’s followup, allows the bank to obtain a U. S. service mark for the First Niagara name in banking and leasing services, but not in insurance. The bank can still use the name in all its businesses anyway, but the trademark protects the name from being used by anyone else in this country.
“We are pleased with the decision of the Court of Appeals,” First Niagara Financial Group spokeswoman Leslie Garrity said by e-mail. “The Court rejected the appeal brought by the Canadian insurance broker.”
The decision marks another defeat for First Niagara Insurance Brokers, an insurance agency in Niagara Falls, Ont., that is unrelated to the Lockport- based savings bank.
However, the Canadian brokerage isn’t giving up. While it lost the appeal of the administrative ruling, it separately sued the bank nearly a year ago, seeking to stop it from using the First Niagara name at all because it confuses customers and infringes on the brokerage firm’s own name. That case is expected to start next week, said Bart Naves, the brokerage’s owner.
Naves declined to comment further, citing the pending litigation.
The Canadian firm, located just three miles from the international border but only licensed in Canada, had originally claimed that it has been using the First Niagara name for insurance since 1984, both in Canada and, through advertising, in the United States. It argued that the bank’s use of the same name in the same region since 1999 could damage its reputation and confuse customers.
