Opinion ID: 2977743
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Citizens Financial Group

Text: CFG was also founded in 1871. It began in the Northeast, and, since 1988, it has been a subsidiary of The Royal Bank of Scotland (“RBS”). CFG has been expanding its operations for over a decade, primarily by acquiring other banks. After each purchase, CFG would rebrand its new branches as Citizens Banks. It expanded into the Midwest through its acquisition of Charter in 2004. Charter had 1600 banks in six states, including Michigan and Ohio. Beginning in 2005, CFG began a rebranding process in order to change the name of all of its banks to “RBS Citizens.” CFG intended to spend between five and seven million dollars in promoting the RBS Citizens brand inside of Michigan. This rebranding would incorporate the daisy -3- No. 08-1773 Citizens Banking Corp. v. Citizens Fin. Group wheel logo and the blue font that are part of the RBS logo into the mark used on each CFG branch: . In 2007, CFG contacted CBC to inform CBC of CFG’s intended change and to discuss ways to co-exist in Michigan with similar brands. CBC construed this as notification of CFG’s intent to infringe on CBC’s trademark.