Last week, AT&T launched a new loyalty program dubbed AT&T Thanks, offering rewards to customers, especially those who bundle together wireless and pay-TV services from the company. This morning, Citi fired back at the Death Star, alleging that AT&T is stomping all over Citi’s “ThankYou” trademark.
For several years, Citi has had trademarks protecting its “ThankYou from Citi” credit card rewards program, while AT&T more recently filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its “AT&T Thanks” mark.
That AT&T mark was published for opposition this week, and it looks like Citi has a problem with it. Reuters reports that Citi sued the telecom titan this morning in federal court seeking to block continued infringement of its trademark, along with damages.
While Citi has registered multiple variations of its “ThankYou” mark, we couldn’t find anything indicating that the bank has registered anything that that says “Thanks.”
Both the Thanks and ThankYou programs do involve loyalty rewards, though the ThankYou mark is more explicitly designated to cover credit and debit card rewards while the AT&T Thanks doesn’t make any mention of specific types of products or commerce; just “incentive rewards programs for customers for the purpose of promoting and rewarding loyalty.”
We’ve reached out to AT&T for comment, but have not yet heard back from the company.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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