{"id":652083,"date":"2026-05-06T18:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/652083\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:36:09","slug":"focus-sues-former-advisors-over-mosaic-name-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/652083\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus Sues Former Advisors Over Mosaic Name Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Focus Financial Partners is suing a team that left the firm to affiliate through Mariner\u2019s Independent platform, claiming their new moniker infringes on a trademarked name of a Focus subsidiary, with Focus claiming the \u201clikelihood of confusion\u201d is \u201coverwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late last month,\u00a0Mariner Independent onboarded<\/a>\u00a0three former Focus advisors: John Buckingham, Jason Clark and Christopher Quigley, and launched Mosaic Value Partners, with three other employees. The addition was the largest team added to the Mariner platform.<\/p>\n

Before the move, the trio had been with Focus Financial Partners\u2019 Kovitz Investment Group Partners since 2018. Kovitz joined and took on the Focus Partners Wealth brand earlier this year.<\/p>\n

According to Focus Financial\u2019s lawsuit against the new firm, Focus Partners Wealth also includes Mosaic Family Wealth Partners, a minority-owned and controlled network firm of Focus Financial. Focus claims the Mosaic team has operated since 2015, and manages about $1.6 billion in client assets.<\/p>\n

Related:Steward Acquires $500M Ameriprise Practice<\/a><\/p>\n

Mariner declined to comment for this story, and the firm is not named as a defendant in the suit. Mosaic Value Partners did not return a request for comment prior to publication.<\/p>\n

In the suit, Focus claims that it holds trademarks on the names Mosaic Family Wealth and Mosaic Family Office, as they pertain to financial planning services, with a pending patent for Mosaic Wealth, which it filed in April 2024, according to a copy of a status update on the patent application.<\/p>\n

Focus claims that during the trio\u2019s employment at Focus Partners Wealth, they \u201chad direct exposure to the Mosaic brand and the services offered under the Mosaic marks.\u201d<\/p>\n

On April 7, Focus claims the trio formed Mosaic Value Partners with the California Secretary of State\u2019s office while still working at Focus Partners Wealth, and stopped working there on April 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same day, Focus claims they started working as Mosaic Value Partners, with \u201cwidespread\u201d media coverage on April 28, which Focus claims \u201cdramatically compounded\u201d the harm to Focus by \u201cdeepening the likelihood of confusion between Defendant\u2019s firm and Mosaic\u2019s well-established brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the suit, Focus claimed that the new firm\u2019s name \u201cappropriates the sole distinctive element of (Focus\u2019s) marks, \u2018Mosaic,\u2019 and appends only the generic, non-distinguishing words \u2018Value\u2019 and \u2018Partners.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe addition of generic or descriptive terms to a protected mark does not reduce the likelihood of confusion,\u201d the suit read.<\/p>\n

On April 28, Focus sent two cease-and-desist letters to the new Mosaic firm, demanding that it immediately stop using the \u201cMosaic Value Partners\u201d name, with a second letter accelerating the compliance deadline to April 29.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:Wealthspire Lands $1.2B Indianapolis RIA<\/a><\/p>\n

However, on April 29, Mosaic Value Partners launched a website, touting the firm\u2019s ability to \u201ccreate a personalized foundation, carefully aligning each element to support your long-term goals and bring clarity to your overall financial picture\u201d for clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Focus says Mosaic Value Partners \u201chas indicated a willingness to discuss \u2018amicable resolution\u2019\u201d but has not agreed to changing its name. Focus is seeking damages and a court order requiring Mosaic Value Partners to discontinue using the name.<\/p>\n

Citywire<\/a>\u00a0previously reported<\/a>\u00a0that Focus Financial filed a separate lawsuit in Illinois state court against the trio of advisors, accusing them of breaking their non-solicitation agreements with their former employer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Focus Financial Partners is suing a team that left the firm to affiliate through Mariner\u2019s Independent platform, claiming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[45,49,48,133,131,132],"class_list":["post-652083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}