New bank changes name

Northwestern Financial Review, Jul 15-Jul 31, 2004

Suburban Minneapolis de novo Lakeland Bank underwent a ninthinning name change and will open this month as Lakeview Bank. The decision to change the bank's name was spurred by the threat of legal action coming from Lakeland Mortgage Corp.

"We had done a trademark search on the Lakeland name both at the state and national levels and the name came out clean," said Tom Mork, president. "Where we felt we could be in trouble is with common law trademark protection." Lakeland Mortgage Corp., didn't hold a trademark on the name, but had been using it for 17 years.

"The board spent a couple weeks discussing whether we should change the name and even though we felt we could prevail in this issue, we didn't think fighting was the best use of our time or resources," Mork said. The cost of having to change the bank's name months after opening would have been significant, Mork added.

The bank had embedded the words "in organization" into their logo, which was used on their web site and on all printed materials, therefore it didn't face unplanned costs when opting to proceed with the name change.