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Life Health > Running Your Business

Grange Holdings Sues Kansas City Life Over Name

By Allison Bell

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Grange Holdings believes that Kansas City Life Insurance Company may be taking too long to give up the Grange Life Insurance Company name.

Grange, an insurer based in Columbus, Ohio, sold its Grange Life subsidiary to Kansas City Life for $77.2 million in 2018. Kansas City Life agreed to end use of the Grange Life name after five years, with an additional 90-day phase-out period.

The five-year period ended Oct. 1, and Kansas City Life has waived the right to the 90-day phase-out period because it has refused to wind down use of the trademarked Grange Life name and the trademarked Grange Life logo, according to a complaint filed by Grange in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Grange is asking the court for declaratory judgment that would force Kansas City Life to stop using the Grange Life name and logo. It has asked the court to schedule a non-jury trial that would start around June 3.

Kansas City Life argued in a motion to dismiss that Grange filed the lawsuit in the wrong forum, because an agreement on forum selection clauses requires the case to be filed in either a state court in Delaware or a federal court in Delaware.

The company also has argued that a trademark license agreement between it and Grange lets it use the Grange Life name and the Grange Life logo “‘for purposes of administering life insurance products sold by Grange Life in accordance with the terms of this agreement,’” according to a Kansas City Life memorandum supporting the motion.

Kansas City Life and the Grange Life subsidiary “have stated that they intend to continue use of those trademarks to administer all Grange Life policies until all of that business concludes (i.e., all life insurance policies are no longer in-force, due to the death of the insureds, surrender of the insurance policy, expiration of any applicable term or otherwise canceled),” Kansas City Life says in the memorandum.

Representatives for Grange did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

Kansas City Life Insurance Company said it has no comment on pending litigation.

Credit: vacharapong/Adobe Stock

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

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