Jack Dorsey is developing an economic platform (Blocks)

[PrimeNumber7]

Dorsey faces a nightmare with his new brand.

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.

To be honest I just heard of H&RBlock company and I don't know if the service is bigger scale (not just 3 countries) because the reason for the lawsuit is to capitalize on the popularity of synonym brands even though the two are not exactly the same, not even sure that the name is more popular than a Jack Dorsey.

If so, I actually found several other companies that could potentially sue Dorsey in the future under the brand name "Block", such as Block.eu and BlockCRS. Was it just because of a Dorsey that he was sued?

You can only have a valid trademark with regards to business lines you regularly conduct business in.

So for example, if a company were to sell fruit and call itself "Apple", the company "Apple" (that sells iPhones and MacBooks) could not do anything to stop this fruit company from using the "Apple" name because each company does not engage in similar business.

OTOH, if a company were to sell computer accessories under the trade name "Apple", the company "Apple" (that sells iPhones) could sue this entity for trademark infringement because both entities sell computer accessories.

There are multiple overlapping products that both H&R Block and "Block" (fka Square) offer.

[NeuroticFish]

Dorsey faces a nightmare with his new brand.
[~snip~]
If so, I actually found several other companies that could potentially sue Dorsey in the future under the brand name "Block", such as Block.eu and BlockCRS. Was it just because of a Dorsey that he was sued?

Not unexpected.

Many child games are based on blocks.
Many Tetris clones are Blocks / falling blocks.

Dorsey seems to have a "problem" with picking names. Square is also a very common word , and since he and his lawyers have handled Square, they may handle Block too, good enough.

[DaveF]

....
There are multiple overlapping products that both H&R Block and "Block" (fka Square) offer.

Up until now I did not know H&R as anything other then "those tax people".
Possibly I just did not notice, so when I got to the office I asked the 2 other people who were there, one of which is a bookkeeper if they knew what else H&R block did and all I got was "aren't they tax people"

So with my sample size of 3 most people just see H&R as tax people. However, they DO other things, how much I don't know but I can see them needing to / wanting to defend the trademark. OTOH, asking people what Square does you will probably get a longer list of stuff so H&R might have a bit of an uphill battle.

The other side of the coin is that as of NOW H&R Block has a market cap of $4 billion on revenue of $3.4 billion (as of the end of their last fiscal year)
Block / square has a market cap of $73 billion on revenue of $9.4 billion (as of the end of their last fiscal year) and as of now are on the way to having a $17 billion dollar year this year.
In theory Block / Square could absorb H&R somewhat easily. And add to their portfolio and services group.

-Dave

[PrimeNumber7]

....
There are multiple overlapping products that both H&R Block and "Block" (fka Square) offer.

Up until now I did not know H&R as anything other then "those tax people".
Possibly I just did not notice, so when I got to the office I asked the 2 other people who were there, one of which is a bookkeeper if they knew what else H&R block did and all I got was "aren't they tax people"

So with my sample size of 3 most people just see H&R as tax people. However, they DO other things, how much I don't know but I can see them needing to / wanting to defend the trademark. OTOH, asking people what Square does you will probably get a longer list of stuff so H&R might have a bit of an uphill battle.

The other side of the coin is that as of NOW H&R Block has a market cap of $4 billion on revenue of $3.4 billion (as of the end of their last fiscal year)
Block / square has a market cap of $73 billion on revenue of $9.4 billion (as of the end of their last fiscal year) and as of now are on the way to having a $17 billion dollar year this year.
In theory Block / Square could absorb H&R somewhat easily. And add to their portfolio and services group.

-Dave

I think most of H&R Block's businesses are all related to their tax preparation services. For example, I believe most of their lending services is related to them giving customers (near) instant access to their tax refund via a loan that is secured by their tax refund. I suspect most of these products is a means to sell their tax preparation services to people who have an immediate need for money.

Most of Block's revenues come from products that do not compete with H&R Block, such as credit card processing.

Cash App, which is owned by Square, purchased a tax preparation business from Credit Karma last year.

Also, just because a company has more revenue, it doesn't mean their reputation is necessarily better, or that they are shielded if they were to start using another company's trademark. For example, Ford's revenue is ~$127 billion, compared to Ferrari's EUR~3.4 billion, but even though both companies make good cars, with very few exceptions, Fords are not worth several hundred thousand dollars that Ferraris will often sell for. So if Ford were to start selling under the trade name Ferrari and were to sell what is basically a Mustang as a Ferrari, it would clearly be confusing to customers, and would be using the Ferrari brand that is not owned by Ford.