HQ has long been used as casual shorthand for headquarters, but the term is at the heart of a trademark infringement lawsuit between the world's two biggest providers of flexible office space.

IWG, through two Texas-based subsidiaries, has filed a lawsuit against WeWork in Dallas federal court, claiming WeWork's new business line, HQ by WeWork, infringes on a 28-year-old trademark registered to HQ Network Systems, which Regus acquired in 2004. IWG claims the HQ by WeWork brand could confuse customers because

IWG still has a brand called HQ Global Workplaces. That brand operates from the website hq.com, and the HQ brand has existed since the 1970s, the suit claims. The lawsuit claims the name HQ by WeWork could "cause confusion and deception in the marketplace."

"Plaintiffs have expended extensive time and resources over the last thirty-eight plus years in advertising, promoting, and developing the HQ Mark," the lawsuit states. "As a result of such advertising and expenditures, the relevant public has come to identify all such goods and services offered under the HQ Mark as coming from Plaintiffs alone."