Citigroup may have lost $28.2 billion in the last five quarters and received a $45 billion bailout from taxpayers, but the struggling financial giant still has time to sweat the small stuff – namely suing a Brooklyn pawnshop for copyright infringement.
All Citi Pawn has the same unusual spelling and a red arc over the “t” just like Citigroup’s banking subsidiary, Citibank.
In a suit filed last week in Brooklyn federal court, Citigroup charged the pawnshop had infringed on its name and its logo.
The suit seeks all of the business’ profits since it adopted the All Citi name.
“This is a joke, right?” said manager Bob Kay. “It makes no sense. They’re a bank. I’m a pawnshop. They make more in one day than I do all year.”
Kay said he had agreed to remove the arc over the “t” and believed that resolved the suit.
A Citigroup spokeswoman said, “As a matter of course, we work to protect the value of our trademarks.”