Union Square Squabble
Venture capital firm Union Square Ventures is suing buyout firm Union Square Partners (f.k.a. Capital Z Financial Services), for trademark infringement. Allegedly, more than a few LPs and other business contacts have confused the two firms.
Leaving the legality aside, the big question here is why the Cap Z team ever chose the Union Square moniker in the first place. Sure its offices are just a block or two away, but it’s also equidistant to Gramercy Park. And USV was around first, with a very high profile.
I’ve uploaded both the USV complaint and the USP response, for your perusal:
USV_Lawsuit.pdf
USP_Response.pdf.
Matthew said on August 2, 2007
While I agree that Union Square Partners could have chose a slightly less confusing (and more original) name for itself, this is hardly the only example of two PE or VC firms sharing very similar names.
There are numerous firms with similar names which (ostensibly) seem to be co-existing just fine with minimal confusion. Examples include Cardinal Ventures / Cardinal Partners, Saratoga Ventures / Saratoga Partners, Access Capital / Access Venture Partners, Sterling Partners / Sterling Group / Sterling Investment Partners, and Granite Global Ventures / Granite Ventures.
Given these and other examples, it seems to me that USV may have a tough time demonstrating (as the lawsuit states) that USP’s actions “constitute deceptive acts and practices and false advertising…” and that they have “caused great and irreparable injury to (USV).”