H&R Block sues Square over name change
H&R Block, the tax preparation firm, has sued Square over the recent rebranding of the company to Block as it believes that it confuses the users of both companies.
Square, the payments company that was founded by Jack Dorsey, recently rebranded itself to Block in a sign of things to come.
Square Rebrand
Though it did not specifically give details on why the rebranding was done and whether it means that the company would change its focus in the coming months, it has been generally believed that this rebranding, similar to that of Facebook, would mean that the company would focus more on the blockchain, crypto, and bitcoin in the future, in line with the interests of its founder.
But this seems to have caused a lot of confusion especially because Square continues to expand on its range of businesses within the financial services domain and this expansion seems to be infringing on some of the established businesses of H&R Block. One such business is tax preparation which Square also seems to be entering into with the purchase of Credit Karma Tax, which is now called Cash App Taxes.
Rebranding Causing Confusion
“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,” said Jeff Jones, H&R Block president, and CEO. “Protecting and defending our brand is crucial.”
H&R Block has been in business for over 65 years and the company says that it has been spending billions of dollars in trying to build up its brand and ever since the rebranding of Square to Block, it says that many of its users have been confused into believing that the two companies are related to each other especially as both of them are moving deep into financial services industry.
This is going to be an interesting battle with the reputation of both the large companies at stake. It is unlikely that either of them is going to back down from their positions. It could also pave the way for the public to know why Square had indeed gone for a rebranding and why it would want to retain the name even under difficult circumstances that involve lawsuits etc.
