H&R Block Sues Square’s New Block

<p><strong>KANSAS CITY<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; Tax preparation company H&amp&semi;R Block &lpar;Block&rpar; has filed a lawsuit against Block&comma; Inc&period;&comma; formerly known as Square&comma; Inc&period;&comma; seeking to enjoin the latter’s infringement of Block’s family of trademarks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The company says the goodwill and brand identity that Block has carefully cultivated and nurtured over the last 65 years is under attack by the Silicon Valley fintech company&comma; which announced plans on December 1&comma; 2021 to rebrand as Block&comma; Inc&period; The newly named Block&comma; Inc&period; competes directly with Block in several areas of financial services&comma; including tax preparation through its recent purchase of Credit Karma Tax&comma; now called Cash App Taxes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Through many decades of hard work by its franchisees and associates&comma; and billions of dollars invested in marketing&comma; Block has built a valuable brand that has earned and maintained the trust and loyalty of millions of consumers&period; Rather than generating its own brand equity&comma; Block&comma; Inc&period; appears to be taking a shortcut to capitalize on the well-known Block moniker&period; This is a clear violation of Block’s trademark rights&comma; which threatens to confuse consumers and cause harm&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Today’s filing is an important effort to prevent consumer confusion and ensure a competitor cannot leverage the reputation and trust we have built over more than six decades&comma;” said Jeff Jones&comma; H&amp&semi;R Block President and CEO&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Protecting and defending our brand is crucial&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Indeed&comma; in the two weeks since the name change was announced&comma; there already have been numerous indications that consumers are drawing a link between the companies due to Block&comma; Inc&period;’s choice to co-opt the Block name&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The complaint has been filed in the U&period;S&period; District Court for the Western District of Missouri&period; H&amp&semi;R Block is represented in this lawsuit by Debevoise &amp&semi; Plimpton LLP and Berkowitz Oliver LLP&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;