PeoplesBank moves to protect brand and avoid consumer confusion

Date: 1/5/2009

HOLYOKE PeoplesBank (www.bankatpeoples.com) has announced that it has filed an Unfair Competition and Trademark Infringement complaint in the U.S. District Court in Springfield against People's United Bank and the two Massachusetts banks that it owns, Bank of Western Massachusetts and Flagship Bank and Trust, for False Advertisement and False Designation of Origin, Infringement of State-Registered Service Mark and Unfair and Deceptive Practices.

PeoplesBank is a state-chartered community bank which was founded in Holyoke in 1885. People's United Bank (www.peoples.com) is a stockholder-owned, federally chartered bank based in Bridgeport, Conn., which recently acquired the Bank of Western Massachusetts (www.bankwmass.com) and Flagship Bank and Trust (www.flagshipbank.com) through the purchase of their corporate parent the Chittenden Corporation (www.chittenden.com).

People's United Bank filed a complaint against PeoplesBank in the U.S. District Court in Hartford, Conn., on Dec. 8, requesting the Court to rule, in part, that it could use the brand People's United Bank in Massachusetts.