H&R Block is suing Jack Dorsey’s Block for trademark infringement

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business

H&R Block is suing Block, the digital payments company previously known as Square, for trademark infringement.

The 65-year-old company said in a press release Thursday that CEO Jack Dorsey’s company “appears to be taking a shortcut to capitalize on the well-known Block moniker.” H&R Block alleged that the change is a “clear violation of Block’s trademark rights” that might cause consumer confusion.

“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,” said H&R Block CEO Jeff Jones in the release. “Protecting and defending our brand is crucial.”

H&R Block claims that there has already been “numerous indications” that people are confusing the two companies since Block announced the rebranding about two weeks ago. The tax preparation company also noted that Block competes with H&R Block after buying Credit Karma Tax.

Block didn’t immediately return CNN Business’ request for comment. The company announced the change on December 1, explaining that Block “references the neighborhood blocks where we find our sellers, a blockchain, block parties full of music, obstacles to overcome, a section of code, building blocks, and of course, tungsten cubes.”

Block is the corporate parent of Square, which remains the name of the business that provides software and services to sellers.

Square’s move follows similar rebrandings by other large tech firms such as Google, which placed itself under parent company Alphabet in 2015. In a more recent example, social media giant Facebook changed its name to Meta (with a new logo) in late October this year.

–CNN Business’ Rishi Iyengar contributed to this report.

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