Copy of Elevate FCU's Certificate of Trademark from the State of Utah.

A Utah-based credit union has asked a U.S. District Court to make a Colorado credit union back off of alleged threats to sue for trademark infringement, according to a court complaint filed earlier this month.

In the filing, the Brigham City, Utah-based Elevate Federal Credit Union claimed that the Boulder, Colo.-based Elevations Credit Union has repeatedly threatened to sue after the Utah credit union began efforts to change its name in 2018. Elevate, which has $146 million in assets and about 13,000 members, previously operated under the name Box Elder County Federal Credit Union.

The NCUA blessed its name change, Elevate told the court.

"Plaintiff sought prior permission on January 30, 2018, from the National Credit Union Association, the entity that approves and regulates all credit unions, to change its name to Elevate Federal Credit Union. Following the NCUA approval process, on February 28, 2018, plaintiff received a certificate of resolution from the NCUA granting plaintiff permission to use the name Elevate Federal Credit Union and reserving the name for plaintiff," it said in the complaint. "On December 17, 2019, the NCUA officially changed plaintiff's name to Elevate Federal Credit Union, without objection, despite (the) NCUA's full knowledge of the existence of Elevations Credit Union."

"(The) NCUA does not approve a name for a credit union that it believes is too similar in name or membership to another credit union. Based on (the) NCUA's approval, plaintiff understood that there would be no legal issues with its rebranding," it added.

About a week before the NCUA implemented the official name change, however, Elevations allegedly sent to Elevate a letter objecting to the new moniker, according to the complaint. But it was too late at that point, Elevate said.

"By then, plaintiff's rebranding was already irreversible. It no longer was authorized to do business as Box Elder County Federal Credit Union and can only do business as Elevate Credit Union, per the rules and regulations of (the) NCUA," Elevate said.

Elevations, which has $2.2 billion in assets and about 144,000 members, doesn't operate in Utah, and the Utah-based Elevate doesn't operate in Colorado, according to the complaint.

Elevate also told the court that its trademarks weren't confusingly similar to Elevations' trademarks and that it's unaware of any actual confusion among members.

"The marks do not sound alike, do not have the same appearance and do not have the same meaning," it said. "The term 'elevate' and the term 'elevations' do not have the same meaning, appearance, sound or commercial impression."

"The [United States Patent and Trademark Office] has repeatedly concluded that a mark containing the word 'elevate' as the only distinctive element would not create a likelihood of confusion with a mark containing the term 'elevations' or 'elevation' as the only distinctive element, even when the marks are used in connection with identical or closely related goods or services," the credit union added.

"There are literally dozens of companies using marks that contain the terms 'elevation,' 'elevations,' 'elevate,' 'elevated' and 'elevating' as the dominant or often only nondescriptive element of their respective marks," it said.

Elevations did not respond to a request for comment.

Instant Insights /

Elevate FCU & Elevations Credit Union in Trademark Tug-of-War

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