MetroBank Gets Served First Lawsuit For Its Branding

Andrew Calvo | July 8, 2009 | 1 Comment

Get ready people. Metro Bank may be a new company, but similar to Commerce Bank, they’ll piss off a lot of people along the way.

I just read an article where Pennsylvania’s Members 1st Federal Credit Union has filed a lawsuit against Metro Bank for trademark infringement – apparently the Metro Bank M is too similar to the Members 1st M.

Members 1st is stating in the lawsuit that since Commerce Bank switched to Metro Bank, customers of Metro Bank have been going to Members 1st, thinking it was Metro Bank, and Members 1st customers have been going to Metro Bank thinking its Members 1st. Instead of suing Metro Bank, Members 1st should find those customers and cancel their accounts for being so stupid. Then find the Metro Bank customers who walked into Members 1st, and report them to Metro Bank for being just as dumb. Who in their right mind would walk into a completely different bank branch with a completely different name, except for an uppercase red M. How many Members 1st customers have gone into a Modell’s Sporting goods thinking it was the bank or even a McDonald’s?

Here are the two logos.

For those who cant tell the difference, the REAL Members 1st logo is on top, the REAL Metro Bank logo is on the bottom.

I have to side with Metro Bank on this one – this seems to be a desperate attempt by Members 1st to try to slow down any growth of what will probably become a huge competitor. The fact that both banks have a large red M that’s broken up on one side is not enough to become a trademark infringement. Plus, would Metro Bank with 2.1 billion in assets need to take from a competing bank with only 1.6 billion in assets?

Unfortunately, this will not be the last of the lawsuits for Metro Bank as they continue to grow throughout America. The biggest problem they are going to have in the future is the simple fact that there are at least 4 other Metro Banks in America which have had the name longer and probably aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s something I never quite understood about why Vernon Hill picked Commerce Bank – there are a lot of other Commerce Bank’s in America, and it took over 30 years, but they were forced to change their name to TD Bank (vs TD Commerce Bank) because of some little old bank in Massachusetts. I see that happening to Metro Bank in the future as well.

I just don’t understand why major companies don’t do their research, are they that arrogant? Vernon Hill may be a branding powerhouse in getting a brand ingrained into a persons head, but apparently he never paid attention to the competition.

andrew@alconic-inc.com