AKRON, Ohio – In the latest dispute over similar names, FirstEnergy Family CU is challenging the legal rights of Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Energy FCU, to use a new name: FirstEnergy FCU, after the chief corporate sponsor for the Ohio credit union, Akron’s FirstEnergy Corp. acquired Allegheny Energy Corp., the sponsor for the Pennsylvania credit union.
In a new suit filed yesterday in federal court, the $38 million Ohio credit union claims the similar name infringes on its trademark and violates unfair competition laws and will cause it irreparable competitive harm.
“Allegheny’s use of one or more of the FFCU marks on its website, in its advertising publications, literature and merchandise creates a likelihood that FFCU’s customers, potential customers, and the public will be confused or misled as to the source of goods, services, and products, as the public is likely to believe that Allegheny’s business is the same as, or in some ways affiliated with, associated with, or sponsored by FFCU,” said the smaller credit union, which serves the local electric utility FirstEnergy Corp.
The dispute is the latest in a growing list of credit union fights over similar names, websites and trademarks, following recent actions filed by California’s Partners FCU against Colorado’s Partners CU, California’s Schools FCU against SchoolsFirst FCU and even Kansas bank Intrust Financial against Virginia’s Entrust Financial CU.
But the newest dispute is even more confusing because both credit unions are sponsored by the same corporation, FirstEnergy Corp., one of the nation’s largest electric utilities which acquired Allegheny Energy in 2010, a Greensburg, Pennsylvania, power company that serves 1.6 million customers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
In the new suit, Ohio’s FirstEnergy Family notes it has been using the moniker long before the $55 million Greensburg, Penn., credit union adopted the similar-sounding appellation Jan. 1 and even offers its products and services in the Ohio markets in direct competition.
FirstFamily Energy says it has done business under its current name since 1998 and built up goodwill in the community and among the public using that name. It asks the court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, to issue a restraining order barring the Pennsylvania credit union from using the “FirstEnergy” title or anything similar in its name and to order the Pennsylvania credit union to destroy all literature, brochures, advertising and merchandise using the FFCU marks or any similar marks.
Diane Momeyer, president of FirstEnergy FCU, told the Credit Union Journal this morning they had not seen the suit yet and would not be commenting on it.
