Square, the payments company founded by Jack Dorsey, is in trouble over its recent name change to Block with the tax preparation company H&R Block suing it over the change.
Square had undertaken the name change a couple of weeks back as it followed in the footsteps of Facebook which changed its name to Meta. Though Facebook made it clear that it had changed its name to show its renewed focus in the field of the metaverse, Square was not so forthcoming and it kept its options open and said that the new name could represent a block that could have multiple meanings associated with it. But crypto supporters felt that this name change to Block was more in line with the thoughts of its founder who had expressed his intent to delve deeper into the field of bitcoin and blockchain in the future.
Though that focus is unlikely to change, the name change seems to have created new problems for the company and it remains to be seen whether it would backtrack on its name change or choose a different name to make sure that there is no conflict in the names. The conflict has been made worse by the fact that both the companies are delving deeper and deeper into the financial services industry by offering different and new products.
One such product in contention is the tax preparation which Square is delving into with the acquisition of Credit Karma Tax. This is in direct conflict with the products of H&R Block and this has led to some confusion among the users of both companies.
“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,” says Jeff Jones, H&R Block president, and CEO. “Protecting and defending our brand is crucial.”
The company has said that the users are indirectly led to believe that the 2 companies are related to each other and they believe that this affects the brand and the reputation that they have built over the past 65 years when the company has been in existence. The battle among the 2 major companies in the court is likely to be watched with keen interest with either side unlikely to back down.
