Funeral service companies in court over trade name

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Two funeral service firms are locked up in a court battle over a trading name. A-Plus Funeral Management Limited has sued A-Class Funeral Services Uganda Limited and Uganda Registration Services Bureau for registering a name similar to theirs. 

Through its lawyers of Buwule and Mayiga Company Advocates, A- Plus contends that it has successfully run funeral services providing superior services in the country since 2003 and no other firm has a name like theirs. However, A-Plus Funeral Management Limited says in September 2020, it came to their knowledge that another firm known as A-Class had been incorporated on August 31, 2020. 

According to documents before the High Court Civil Division, A- plus says that it searched and scrutinized the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the said company at URSB and established that A-Class also wants to offer funeral management services. 

According to A-Plus, it raised objection to URSB on September 16th and 24th 2020 through its lawyers but didn’t receive any response. A-Plus contends that the use of A-Class Funeral Services Uganda Limited is a wrongful attempt to impersonate its business name and mislead the public to believe that the two firms could be related, which isn’t true. 

A -Plus also accuses URSB of failure to perform due diligence, which reportedly resulted in the wrongful registration and incorporation of A-Class. A-Plus now wants High Court to declare that A-Class Funeral Services Uganda Limited is a pass of their name and in the alternative order them to change their name. 

A -plus also wants High Court to issue a permanent injunction restraining A-Class from carrying out similar business using a name that is seemingly confusing with theirs. Court is yet to summon URSB and A-Class to respond to the application before the matter is allocated to a judge for a hearing.

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