‘Hana Bank’ Battle Faces Supreme Test This Fall

0

Downtown L.A. lender Hana Financial Inc. lost the latest round in its long-running trademark fight with South Korean banking conglomerate Hana Financial Group last year. But the two sides are set to square off again this fall – this time in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

At issue is the companies’ use of the word hana, which in Korean translates roughly as “first” or “No. 1.” L.A.’s Hana, led by Chief Executive Sunnie S. Kim, sued Seoul’s Hana for copyright infringement seven years ago, claiming the foreign bank’s use of the name Hana Bank here could cause confusion.

A jury ruled in 2011 that the Korean Hana could use that name because it had offered investment services to Korean expatriates under the name Hana Overseas Korean Club starting in 1994, just before L.A.’s Hana was founded. Essentially, the jury said that “Hana Overseas Korean Club” was close enough to “Hana Bank” to give the bank the right to the name.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in November upheld that ruling, but did so with two side notes. Justices wrote in their opinion that, in the 9th Circuit, the question of whether the names are similar enough to cause a trademark infringement was generally left to juries to decide. Other federal circuits that have engaged the question, the panel noted, have left the resolution to judges.

What’s more, the justices wrote that reasonable minds could disagree over whether “Hana Overseas Korean Club” and “Hana Bank” are similar enough.

Paul Hughes, an attorney in the Washington office of law firm Mayer Brown who is representing L.A.’s Hana Financial, said he thinks the local firm would have won the 2011 copyright case if it had been tried in another jurisdiction.

Carlo van den Bosch, a partner in the Costa Mesa office of L.A. law firm Sheppard Mullin who represents the Korean Hana, disagrees.

But now that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, attorneys’ arguments and the court’s ruling will likely focus more on the procedural question – whether judges or juries should decide these matters – than on the particulars of the Hana trademark, van den Bosch said.

Attorneys said they expect to argue the case in December. Hughes said he expects a ruling by early next year.

Vroom Vroom

Downtown L.A. lender City National Bank last week opened an office near the racing mecca of Daytona Beach, Fla. – its first in the Sunshine State – where it plans to serve clients in the auto-racing business.

The office, in Holly Hill, is led by two bankers with experience in the entertainment and motor sports world. Both were hired from the Daytona Beach office of Atlanta lender SunTrust Bank. Holly Bell, who oversees City National’s operations in the Southeastern United States from her office in Nashville, Tenn., said the expansion into Florida was a natural one for the bank.

“A number of our entertainment and entrepreneurial clients are heavily involved in the motor sports industry, which is based here and popular nationwide,” Bell said. NASCAR is headquartered in Daytona Beach.

City National now has offices in Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Delaware, New York state, Nevada and California.

New Spotlight

Commerce furniture maker Nova Lifestyle Inc. and Brentwood pharmaceutical company CytRx Corp. were added to Russell Investments indices last week, something executives at both companies hope will give their publicly traded stocks more attention from institutional investors.

Nova, which manufactures furniture for Ikea and other retailers, was added to the Russell Microcap Index, which tracks the performance of about 1,600 public companies worth less than $1 billion.

CytRx, which is developing a cancer treatment, was added to the Russell 3000 index, which tracks the 3,000 largest public companies in the United States. It had been on the Russell Microcap Index since 2012.

Russell adjusts its indices annually in June.

C-Suite News

Thien Truong and Joshua Goines have joined Pasadena prepaid debit card company Green Dot Corp. Truong, senior vice president of business development and sales, was previously a vice president with New York’s America Express Co. Goines, general manager of Green Dot-owned bank GoBank, was formerly a senior director at Palo Alto payments company PayPal. … Chris Macke has joined Glendale real estate investment firm American Realty Advisors as a managing director. He was previously with real estate services firm CBRE Group Inc. … Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers named five new partners in its downtown L.A. office: Adam Bulpitt, Jeff Feiereisen, Curt Jacobsen, Jerry Puzey and Miranda Tse.

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.

No posts to display