NOAH Bank Files Suit against NOA Bank

FORT LEE, N.J., April 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NOAH Bank reported today that it filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against NOA Bank, a community bank based in Duluth, Georgia, and several related individuals, alleging violations of the Lanham Act, including trademark infringement, false designation of origin and description and unfair competition, as well as a number of state law claims. 

The lawsuit stems from NOA Bank's recent hiring of a former NOAH Bank officer and the opening by NOA Bank of a loan production office in New York in March 2016.  In the suit, NOAH Bank alleges that NOA Bank has intentionally engaged in an unlawful scheme to confuse the customers and prospects of NOAH Bank in an effort to steal away those customers and prospects.  In particular, NOAH Bank claims that NOA Bank has targeted the Korean-American community served by NOAH Bank since 2004, by, inter alia, adopting infringing trademarks and using NOAH Bank's confidential and trade secret information which it unlawfully obtained from NOAH Bank's former Executive Vice President and Senior Lender.

"When we learned that NOA Bank, which previously served the marketplace 'North of Atlanta' (in Georgia) had hired a former officer of NOAH Bank and planned to target our customers and prospects in the Northeast using our own confidential and trade secret information and using trademarks (including the trademarked 노아은행) which were obviously intended to confuse the public, we warned them that these actions were unlawful and would certainly damage NOAH Bank. We asked them to stop but they ignored our warning and proceeded with their unlawful scheme.  We had little choice but to file suit. We are confident that the District Court here in New York will protect our business, our trademarks (including 노아은행) and our excellent reputation from this blatantly unlawful conduct," stated Edward Shin, CEO of NOAH Bank. 

As of December 31, 2015, NOAH Bank had assets of approximately $311 million, deposits of approximately $258 million, and loans of approximately $229 million (net of loan loss allowance).  NOAH Bank's capital ratios were 12.39% Tier 1 Leverage Ratio, 16.19% Tier 1 Capital Ratio, and 21.70% Total Risk-Based Capital Ratio on that date.

About NOAH Bank
With its legal headquarters in Elkins Park, PA, NOAH Bank is a Pennsylvania-chartered bank that was launched in 2004.  At that time, NOAH was named "Royal Asian Bank, the NOAH Bank", and changed its name to simply "NOAH Bank" in 2011.  Major Korean-American investors invested in NOAH Bank in December 2010.  Operational headquarters are in Fort Lee, New Jersey.  NOAH Bank provides banking products and services to businesses and consumers primarily in the Asian-American communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland.  More information is available at: www.noahbank.com.

SOURCE NOAH Bank

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http://www.noahbank.com