HOW TO RESERVE A COMPANY NAME WITH PHONETIC SIMILARITIES WITH ALREADY REGISTERED COMPANIES IN UGANDA.
Has your prospective company name in Uganda ever been declined to be reserved due to speech sound similarities with an already registered company? Sometimes, the Registrar of companies at Uganda Registration Services Bureau can decline to reserve a prospective company name on grounds pertaining to speech sound similarities. But this should never be the case.
In A-Plus Funeral Management Services Ltd. v. A-Class Funeral Management Services Ltd. and URSB, (Civil suit no. 355 of 2020) [2023] UGHCCD 186 (30 JUNE 2023), the High Court held that the registration of companies is not determined by phonetic similarity but rather by whether the name may be misleading to the public. Courts are willing to accept that, as a matter of fact, some degree of confusion always exists in the marketplace, and in appropriate cases, the law is prepared to tolerate it.
In the above case, A-Plus Funeral Management Limited filed a suit against A-Class Funeral Services (U) Limited and URSB seeking for declarations that the name A-Class Funeral Services Uganda Limited is a pass off its business name and business and that its registration was wrongful and negligently done by URSB. It sought for a permanent injunction against A-Class Funeral Services Uganda Limited to stop using the said name because it’s confusing to the public and similar to A-Plus Funeral Services Uganda Limited. However, Court disagreed with A-Plus funeral Management limited claims that the name A-Class funeral Management services limited is confusingly similar to its name and dismissed the suit.
Court also held that an action for passing off may succeed where the integral part of the names of the companies are synonymous with each other. Court found that A-Plus and A-Class are not synonymous with each other apart from the first letter A with hyphen; that the issue of confusion of marks and names must be considered from the point of view of the average hurried or confused consumer having an imperfect recollection of the mark or name, that in an action for passing off, a distinction should be drawn between a misrepresentation causing mere confusion and a misrepresentation causing deception. The misrepresentation causing mere confusion is not sufficient to found an action for passing off while the misrepresentation causing deception is sufficient.
The above case emphasized the fact that the Registrar of companies ought not to decline to reserve a prospective company name on grounds pertaining to speech sound similarities.
When your prospective company name is declined to be registered on grounds of speech sound similarities with an already registered company, follow these steps ;
- Make a formal complaint to the Registrar general requesting for reservation of the subject name.
- If the complaint doesn’t yield positive results, make an application to Court praying for orders that your prospective company name is reserved.
In Conclusion,
Do not give up on your prospective company name because it has been declined to be reserved due to speech sound similarities with an already registered company. That is not a valid ground for a Registrar of companies to decline to reserve your prospective company name. Where you find issues, always engage a lawyer to enable you in your business registration and intellectual property protection.
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