June 13, 2016

Citigroup says it has trademarked "THANKYOU"

Ars Technica

Banking giant Citigroup has trademarked "THANKYOU" and is now suing technology giant AT&T for how it says thanks to its own loyal customers. This is "unlawful conduct" amounting to wanton trademark infringement, Citigroup claims in its federal lawsuit.

According to Citibank's lawsuit lodged in New York federal court:
For many years, Citigroup has used trademarks consisting of and/or containing the term THANKYOU, including THANKYOU, CITI THANKYOU, CITIBUSINESS THANKYOU. THANKYOU FROM CITI, and THANKYOU YOUR WAY, in connection with a variety of customer loyalty, reward, incentive, and redemption programs (collectively, the “THANKYOU Marks”).
In its lawsuit, the financial institution says AT&T is infringing Citigroup's intellectual property because of AT&T's brand new marketing campaign (PDF) connected to AT&T's co-branded, Citigroup credit card called "the AT&T Universal Card." AT&T is illegally marketing the phrases "thanks" and "AT&T THANKS," Citigroup claims. This "is likely to cause consumer confusion and constitutes trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition in violation of Citigroup's rights," the suit says.

Because of "AT&T's unlawful conduct," Citigroup wants unspecified damages and is demanding that a federal judge block this alleged illegal marketing campaign. In its lawsuit, Citigroup said everybody knows that the "THANKYOU Marks" are synonymous with Citigroup.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's really encouraging news because I've been trying to copyright a trademark for the correspondence stationary reserved for my business with just those kind of guys.
A beautiful concept, 100% linen bond with the embedded FUCKYOU watermark.