Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, August 1, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 186 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Ameris feels at home in Jacksonville
Jacksonville may lose one major banking headquarters if EverBank Financial Corp. accepts a buyout offer, but it does seem to be gaining another in Ameris Bancorp. Ameris still officially lists its headquarters address as Moultrie, Ga., but it recently moved its executive offices to the Riverplace Tower on the Southbank and expanded its banking operations in Northeast Florida with the acquisition of Jacksonville Bancorp Inc. During the company’s conference call to discuss second-
quarter earnings, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Dennis Zember said he needed to brag about how well Ameris is doing in Jacksonville. “Just altogether, the success in Jacksonville between the executive team moving here in our new, sort of, executive headquarters (and) the Jax Bank deal has
Is there a market for Barnett building?
paid dividends,” he said. Zember said the integration of Jacksonville Bancorp’s operations and customer relationships into Ameris has been “outstanding.” “The Jax Bank team hit the ground running and we’re ahead of where we thought we would be on loan growth, ahead of where we thought we would be on retaining the deposits. We’ve achieved all the targets that we hit on operating expense,” he said. Ameris reported earnings of 57 cents a share in the quarter, up from 38 cents in the second
quarter of 2015 and 4 cents higher than the average forecast of analysts, according to Thomson Financial. “We had an outstanding quarter where everything came together from the growth, revenue and expense perspective,” CEO Edwin Hortman said in the conference call. “We still see strong momentum. Loan growth is expected to be in the top of the range that we’ve provided, resulting in outstanding revenue growth going forward. Expenses are expected Basch continued on Page A-10
Practicing trademark law is game of the name
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
DIA members split on interest in structure
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Air Riley soars to make the catch Riley gets plenty of air as he spins and flips to catch a flying disc thrown by his trainer Jodi Frederick during a show by Disc-Connected K9s at the grand opening of the Kayak Club at Shearwater in St. Johns County. The Jacksonville group rescues dogs and trains them for competition. See more photos on Page A-8.
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Photo by Fran Ruchalski
By David Chapman Staff Writer The most recent plans for Downtown’s Barnett Bank building received a proverbial “nail in the coffin” last week, said one member of the Downtown Investment Authority. Yet, the foreclosure ruling seen to some as a setback could also be a positive. “On the other hand, it’s a press of the reset button,” said Oliver Barakat, a DIA board member and senior vice president of CBRE Inc. With developer Steve Atkins consenting to foreclosure on the building and owing $4.6 million to an investment company owned by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, the building will be up for public auction Sept. 14 if the judgment is not paid. The “reset button” Barakat mentions could come in the form of other potential buyers — and he does think there will be interest. He bases that on numerous conversations he’s had with Barakat people both locally and nationally who have seen a high demand for historic projects with retail components. Atkins’ most recent plans for the building included a bank in the ground floor with businesses and residences above. It’s a “buyer beware” situation that will take a lot of work — and a lot of money — but Barakat said he would be surprised if no one turned up to bid. “There is an appetite,” he said. “There is interest.” Barakat’s DIA board colleague Jack Meeks said he hopes that’s the case, but he’s more doubtful. Meeks has some experience with historic, urban core rebuilds, his latest being Downtown’s Elena Flats. And while that project pales in scope to the Barnett Bank
Zember
There’s an area of law in which the axiom “possession is nine-tenths of the law” is taken a step further. When it comes to owning a trademark, possession is ten-tenths of the law as long as the trademark is being used, even if it isn’t registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said Howard Caplan, senior counsel at Lewis Longman & Walker. “It’s certainly different than other recognized areas of intellectual property law,” he said. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from others. Unlike patents and copyrights, trademarks do not expire after a set term. Trademark rights come from actual use. Therefore, a trademark can last forever — so long as it con- Caplan tinues to be used in commerce to indicate the source of goods and services. The use of trademarks goes back to the Roman Empire, when blacksmiths who made swords applied distinctive marks to their blades. German brewer Lowenbrau claims use of its lion mark since 1383. During the reign of King Henry III, the British Parliament in 1266 enacted the first trademark law, which required bakers to place a distinctive mark on the bread they sold. In the U.S., Congress established a federal trademark program in 1870, but several years later, the Supreme Court struck down the statute. Congress passed a new trademark act in 1881 and revised it in 1905. It remained in force until 1946, when the Caplan continued on Page A-11
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