Financial Institutions Fight to Get Handle on Name

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In Japanese it means “flower.” In Korean, it translates as “No. 1” or “first.” In Los Angeles, it’s at the center of a federal trademark dispute between a local lender and a South Korean banking conglomerate.

Downtown L.A.’s Hana Financial Inc., a nonbank lender and factoring company, lost a round last month when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Seoul’s Hana Financial Group to continue operating as Hana Bank in the United States.

A jury in a 2011 trial ruled that Hana Bank could use that name because its parent had offered investment services to Korean expatriates under the name Hana Overseas Korean Club starting in 1994, before Hana Financial Inc. was founded.

Hana Financial Inc. argued that “Hana Overseas Korean Club” wasn’t similar enough to “Hana Bank” to allow it to count as first use.

L.A.’s Hana sued Seoul’s Hana for trademark infringement in 2007, and the battle has gone back and forth in federal district and appellate courts ever since.

Sunnie S. Kim, chief executive of L.A.’s Hana, said her firm is still considering legal alternatives, meaning the fight might continue. Attorney Young Lim, a partner at Koreatown law firm Park & Lim who represents the L.A. Hana, said Kim’s company will continue to use the Hana name.

But Carlo van den Bosch, a partner in the Costa Mesa office of L.A. law firm Sheppard Mullin who represented the Korean Hana, implied that could change.

“The net effect of this decision is that Hana Financial Group is the senior trademark user,” he said. “My client reserves all of its rights.”

PE Broker

Equity Risk Partners, a San Francisco insurance brokerage and advisory firm that works with private equity firms, opened an L.A. office last week, trying to develop more business from the region’s private equity scene.

Michael Cardenas, a vice president hired to run the new office in Century City, said his firm sees lots of opportunity here because of the region’s large network of private investment firms.

“Southern California has been a pretty robust marketplace for private equity firms and we believe it will continue to be one,” Cardenas said. “As we’re growing, it’s important to be close to the customers.”

Equity Risk works with private equity firms as they analyze potential acquisitions to perform due diligence on insurance matters. For example, Cardenas said a private equity firm buying a chain of urgent care centers would need to know the company’s exposure to medical liability issues, its property insurance needs and employee health care coverage. (Cardenas specializes in the health care industry.)

Equity Risk also works as an insurance broker, lining up insurance policies for a private equity firm’s portfolio companies.

New Digs

City National Bank has had offices on midtown Manhattan’s Park Avenue for more than a decade, but until this month the only sign of the bank’s presence there was a tiny plaque outside.

Now there’s a ground-floor branch, the downtown L.A. bank’s second in New York. The first, on Sixth Avenue near the Broadway theater district, opened in June.

The new branch is in the ground floor of 400 Park Ave., the building where City National opened its first New York office – and its first office outside of California – in 2002. The bank’s upper-story offices housed City National’s commercial and private banking practices, which also remain at 400 Park.

The new branch is in a space previously occupied by a Syms clothing store.

Turner Out

Robert “Bobby” Turner is out as chief executive of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, the real estate investment wing of Century City investment firm Canyon Partners.

A spokesman said Turner, who co-founded the real estate business, was removed and is no longer associated with Canyon. Turner was replaced by Jonathan Roth.

The spokesman said the move was made to “better align” Canyon’s real estate and nonreal estate investment strategies. Turner could not be reached for comment.

C-Suite News

Douglas Morris has joined downtown L.A. investment firm TCW Group Inc. as head of corporate marketing and communications. He had been head of U.S. media relations for JPMorgan Private Bank in New York. … Charlie Winn has joined Convergent Wealth Advisors, an affiliate of downtown L.A.’s City National Bank, as a managing director. Winn, formerly of Goldman Sachs, will split his time between Convergent’s New York and Century City offices.

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225 ext. 263.