Federated National Holding Co. has started the process of rebranding to use its federally registered FEDNAT trademark after an arbitrator agreed that the name does not infringe on Federated Mutual Insurance Co.'s federal and common law trademark rights.
Federated Mutual demanded an arbitration against Federated National alleging a breach of the coexistence agreement between the two companies for using FED as part of the FEDNAT trademark. Under the agreement, Federated National agreed to certain restrictions on its use of the word "federated" without the word "national" when referring to itself and Federated National Insurance Co.
In July 2016, Federated National filed a declaratory judgment action for noninfringement of trademark in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to counter Federated Mutual's allegation of trademark rights infringement.
On Feb. 16, the arbitrator agreed that the FEDNAT trademark does not infringe on Federated Mutual's trademark rights, but it also required Federated National to stop using the Federated National name within 90 days. Unless an agreement is reached with Federated Mutual regarding the timing of the name change, Federated National intends to challenge this portion of the arbitration award in federal court.
On March 14, Federated Mutual asked a district court to confirm the part of the arbitration award that requires Federated National to change its name.
