First Citizens Bank & Trust Company has filed a complaint seeking a declaration that it owns Silicon Valley Bank's trademark portfolio and related branding assets, intensifying a legal battle over intellectual property rights following one of the most significant bank failures in recent history.
The North Carolina-based bank filed the complaint for declaratory judgment on March 21 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York against SVB Financial Group and SVB Financial Trust, requesting the court affirm its ownership of SVB's trademarks, domain names, and social media accounts that it claims were part of its March 2023 acquisition of the failed bank.
First Citizens' complaint argues that when it purchased "substantially all assets" of Silicon Valley Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on March 27, 2023, the acquisition included the SVB intellectual property portfolio, which consists of domestic and foreign trademarks, domain names, and social media accounts.
"FCB brings this adversary proceeding seeking a declaration of its rights as to the SVB IP, which it understood to be an important part of the assets it acquired when it purchased substantially all assets of SVB through the Purchase Agreement," the complaint states.
The dispute emerges from the complex sequence of events following Silicon Valley Bank's collapse in March 2023. According to court documents, after SVB faced a financial crisis, California regulators closed the bank on March 10, 2023, appointing the FDIC as receiver. The FDIC then established Silicon Valley Bridge Bank and transferred SVB's assets to it, before ultimately selling those assets to First Citizens.
At the heart of the disagreement is who actually owned the trademarks and intellectual property in the first place. While SVB Financial Group claims ownership because the trademarks are formally registered to it at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, First Citizens contends that Silicon Valley Bank was the true owner and exclusive user of the trademarks, with SVB Financial Group merely "administratively listed as the registrant" as a corporate formality.
"On information and belief, SVB freely used the SVB Trademarks without any control by or oversight from SVBFG, was the first and exclusive user of the SVB Trademarks, developed goodwill in and to the trademarks, and was the owner of the SVB Trademarks," the complaint asserts.
The bank argues that SVB operated, controlled, and paid for all trademark activities through its own marketing budget, including deciding which marks to apply for, applying for the marks, and paying PTO registration fees.
The legal battle intensified on March 5, 2025, when SVB Financial Trust filed a complaint for trademark infringement against First Citizens in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California—a move First Citizens characterizes as improper since the bankruptcy court had reserved jurisdiction over the intellectual property dispute in its confirmation order.
First Citizens is seeking alternative relief if full ownership isn't granted, requesting "at minimum, a paid-up, perpetual, exclusive (as to banking services and products), and irrevocable license to use the SVB IP."
The complaint emphasizes that the Purchase Agreement with the FDIC explicitly conveyed "all assets" of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank with only specific exclusions, none of which identified any trademarks. Moreover, it states that the agreement specifically includes "all assets... that enable the ongoing operation of the bank and its Private Bank and Wealth Management operating segment consistent with prior operations."
SVB Financial Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 17, 2023 (Case No. 23-10367(MG)). The case is being heard in the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court by Judge Martin Glenn. Kelsey I. Nix, Michael W. Mitchell, and C. Michael Anderson of Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, LLP, along with Andrew W.J. Tarr of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A., represent First Citizens in this proceeding.
The intellectual property dispute had been preserved in the bankruptcy court's confirmation order from August 2, 2024, which specifically allowed First Citizens to file an adversary proceeding to assert its rights to "Silicon Valley Bank copyrights, trademarks, internet domain names and websites."
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Link to full document: First Citizens Bank & Trust Company's Complaint for Declaratory Judgment