ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan First CU, a thriving credit union based in nearby Lathrup Village, filed a trademark infringement suit last week against First Michigan Bancorp., just days after the single-office, Troy-based bank entered the credit union’s markets with an acquisition of failed Port Huron-based Citizens First Bank from the FDIC.
The suit comes just days after First Michigan, a one-time private bank, acquired failed Citizens First Bank and its 22 branches, many of them overlapping the credit union’s markets. At least four First Michigan branches, including three added by the FDIC-assisted transaction, are located within a 10-mile drive of one of the credit union’s branches.
In the suit filed in federal court, the $550 million credit union claims the new competitor’s name infringes on the trademark it registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the name it has used since 2001 for marketing and promotional materials and its Internet site. “As a result of Michigan First’s extensive use and promotion of the MICHIGAN FIRST marks, these marks have come to be associated in the public mind with credit union, banking and other financial services offered and sold by Michigan First,” says the suit.
The bank’s use of the First Michigan Bank moniker, claims the credit union, “creates a likelihood of public confusion, in that consumers seeking Michigan First’s services will be diverted to (the bank) and/or will erroneously believe that the services offered by (the bank) are offered, sponsored, or endorsed by Michigan First, when in fact they are not.”
Credit union representatives did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Representatives of the bank declined to comment.
But one observer said the suit appears to have been prompted by the bank’s new move into the credit union’s market. “They just expanded into some of their branch markets,” said the observer, who did not want to be identified.
The credit union suit noted that the bank adopted its current name in August 2008 in conscious disregard of the credit union’s trademark rights. The credit union added that it never authorized First Michigan to use that mark.
The credit union is seeking to force the bank to cease and desist from all use of the First Michigan mark or any other confusingly similar name. It is also seeking recovery of damages allegedly suffered as a result of the bank's purportedly wrongful acts.
