Decision

Decision on Rolex Services Ltd

Updated 16 July 2019

Order under the Companies Act 2006

In the matter of application No. 1704

For a change of company name of registration No. 10806355

Decision

The company name ROLEX SERVICES LTD has been registered since 7 June 2017 under number 10806355.

By an application filed on 5 March 2018, ROLEX SA applied for a change of name of this registration under the provisions of section 69(1) of the Companies Act 2006 (the Act).

A copy of this application was sent to the primary respondent’s registered office on 21 March 2018, in accordance with rule 3(2) of the Company Names Adjudicator Rules 2008. The copy of the application was sent by Royal Mail ‘signed for’ delivery. It was returned “addressee gone away”. A copy of the application was then sent by ordinary post. On the same date, the Tribunal wrote to Roland Evuarere Ekere to inform him that the applicant had requested that he be joined to the proceedings. No comments were received from Mr Ekere in relation to this request. On 27 June 2018, Mr Ekere was joined as a co-respondent. On the same date, the parties were advised that no defence had been received to the application and so the adjudicator may treat the application as not being opposed. The parties were granted a period of 14 days to request a hearing in relation to this matter, if they so wished. No request for a hearing was made.

The primary respondent did not file a defence within the two month period specified by the adjudicator under rule 3(3). Rule 3(4) states

The primary respondent, before the end of that period, shall file a counter-statement on the appropriate form, otherwise the adjudicator may treat it as not opposing the application and may make an order under section 73(1).

Under the provisions of this rule, the adjudicator may exercise discretion so as to treat the respondent as opposing the application. In this case I can see no reason to exercise such discretion and, therefore, decline to do so.

As the primary respondent has not responded to the allegations made, it is treated as not opposing the application. Therefore, in accordance with section 73(1) of the Act I make the following order:

(a) ROLEX SERVICES LTD shall change its name within one month of the date of this order to one that is not an offending name ^{[footnote 1]}

(b) ROLEX SERVICES LTD and Roland Evuarere Ekere each shall:

(i) take such steps as are within their power to make, or facilitate the making, of that change;

(ii) not to cause or permit any steps to be taken calculated to result in another company being registered with a name that is an offending name.

In accordance with s.73(3) of the Act, this order may be enforced in the same way as an order of the High Court or, in Scotland, the Court of Session.

In any event, if no such change is made within one month of the date of this order, I will determine a new company name as per section 73(4) of the Act and will give notice of that change under section 73(5) of the Act.

All respondents, including individual co-respondents, have a legal duty under Section 73(1)(b)(ii) of the Companies Act 2006 not to cause or permit any steps to be taken calculated to result in another company being registered with an offending name; this includes the current company. Non-compliance may result in an action being brought for contempt of court and may result in a custodial sentence.

Although the applicant requested costs in its statement of case, it stated in box 7 of its application form that it did not contact the primary respondent prior to making the application. As such, and in line with paragraph 10.4.1 of the Tribunal’s Practice Direction, I make no award of costs in its favour.

Any notice of appeal against this decision to order a change of name must be given within one month of the date of this order. Appeal is to the High Court in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and to the Court of Session in Scotland.

The company adjudicator must be advised if an appeal is lodged, so that implementation of the order is suspended.

Dated 2 August 2018

Judi Pike
Company Names Adjudicator

1. An “offending name” means a name that, by reason of its similarity to the name associated with the applicant in which he claims goodwill, would be likely to be the subject of a direction under section 67 (power of Secretary of State to direct change of name), or to give rise to a further application under section 69. ↩