Bakampa B.
Brian,
Kampala, Uganda.
Monday, 10th
August, 2020.
The
Registrar General,
Uganda
Registration Services Bureau,
Plot
5, George Street, Georgian House,
P.O.
Box 6848, Kampala, Uganda.
Dear Sir,
Re:
Intolerable Frustrations in Company Name Reservations
Thank you for the very good
work you are doing at URSB. The Bureau has quite a good reputation among many of
your clients, and the general public in general that you serve. I for one, I
have been a long admirer, defender and apologist of the manner and style of
doing work and efficiency at URSB. Thank you for a job well done.
But there have been frustrating
events lately in the company name reservations system, which have got me
thinking that the glorious days of URSB are gone, and could be gone forever, if
no urgent interventions are made. These days I often wish we could have our
fantastic Bureau back.
For a long time, company
name reservations were done by registrars who are lawyers, but I am reliably
informed that URSB adopted a policy of replacing them with registrars from
other professions, notably the economics field, like Bachelor of Business Administration,
Bachelor of Arts in Economics, and so on. I believe you have your reasons for
this policy shift, but please be informed that some of these people are doing a
terribly shoddy job, and need some legal training on the principles guiding company
names, and their registration. My views are based on recent frustrating experiences
I faced while trying to reserve company names, as explained below.
1.
Around December 2019, I tried to reserve
a company name called HIPIPO FOUNDATION
at your Nakivubo-Sekaziga House branch. But the lady registrar there refused to
reserve it saying that the word HIPIPO does not have a meaning. I was very
shocked, because as a basic principle of law, a name – more so a company name –
need not have a distinct meaning. I wondered whether herself she knows the
meaning of her religious name, as we call them in this part of the world
(although there is actually nothing religious about these names, because they
are ethnic where they originate from). Anyway, I went to another branch, and
had it reserved. But this was inconveniencing.
2.
In July 2020, I applied to reserve a
name, KONCEPTS, via email, and I received an SMS message saying that my application
was successful. I travelled to your head office at Georgian House, to pick a
printed reservation slip, but I was assured by attendants there that the SMS
message was enough, I should proceed to pay and file the required forms. I
contacted my clients, they signed all the forms, I made all payments, and
submitted the forms. To my dismay, I received an email shortly after saying
that my company name cannot
be registered because
there is a similar name that is already registered in your system. My appeals
for reconsideration were futile, and my clients and I were forced to start the
whole process again. Fortunately, Mr. Kwesiga Amos, who was the contact person
in this matter, was kind enough to fast-track the process. But my clients were
disappointed for not getting their cherished name, all of us were generally inconvenienced,
especially in terms of time and money lost in the process.
3.
I spent
the whole of last week, 3rd to 7th August 2020, trying to
reserve a company name, but without success, for what I can see are largely
flimsy reasons. I submitted a total of 12 names, proposed by my clients, none
of which was reserved.
(i)
First, I
lost a day (Monday, 3rd August, 2020) because unknown to me, the
reservation email was disabled. I learnt that now applications have to be made
by filling an online application form, which I filled unsuccessfully for the
rest of the week.
(ii)
On Tuesday,
4th August, 2020, I submitted three choices (i.e. THE RESIDENTS LIMITED,
THE RESIDENT ENABLERS LIMITED, and THE
RESIDENTS GROUP LIMITED) via
the online application form, but these were rejected for reason that, ‘The
Proposed Names Are Undesirable.’ Whatever ‘undesirable’ means, I respected the
registrar’s decision, and advice to propose other names.
(iii)
On
Wednesday, 5th August, 2020, I submitted three other choices i.e. PATHWAYS LIMITED, GLOBAL TICKETERS LIMITED,
and CITIRESI LIMITED. This set was
rejected because the, ‘Proposed Name Is Similar To Existing Company Names.’
(iv)
On Thursday, 6th August,
2020, I submitted three other choices i.e. XXL
IMMIGRATION AGENCY, GO IMMIGRATION AGENCY, and THE GLOBE IMMIGRATION AGENCY. This set was rejected because it was, ‘… queried with the
following reasons. "Please Note That We Dont Register
Abbreviations, Modify Your Option And Submit." (Emphasis in the original.) Quite frankly, I don’t
know where your registrar gets the view that any of these names is an
abbreviation. Probably he or she is talking about GO, in GO IMMIGRATION AGENCY, but this refers to the verb of going.
Even then, there are two other options; what happens to them? Why were they not
considered and chosen from?
(v)
On the same day, Thursday, 6th
August, 2020, tired of rejections, I submitted another set of names to be
considered i.e. WINO LIMITED, VICH
LIMITED, and PATHRESI LIMITED. But
this set was also rejected because, ‘1- Proposed Name Is Similar To Existing Company Names 2- Hello Please Note That The
Reservation Is Rejected Because Of Smillar Names; Pata Enterprises Limited × pati
I Limited × patsam Enterprises Limited × twino Limited × vidach Limited × vivica
Enterprises Limited.’
Honestly speaking, when I look at the options I
submitted compared with the names which your registrar thinks they are similar
to, I am not convinced that none of my options could succeed. Certainly, a
trained mind would not think that PATHRESI LIMITED
conflicts with PATA ENTERPRISES LIMITED, PATI I LIMITED,
or PATSAM ENTERPRISES LIMITED. I
don’t even think VICH LIMITED conflicts with VIDACH
LIMITED, or VIVICA ENTERPRISES LIMITED. I believe
any of these two names should have succeeded, and been reserved.
So, clearly you can see
that to a large extent, some of your registrars are doing a perfunctory job, working
merely as a duty or routine, without care or interest. Unfortunately, their irresponsible
decisions affect us negatively, because we cannot finalize the incorporation
process without reserved names. In my case, my clients and I are now totally stuck.
I call upon you, Sir,
to put URSB in order, by particularly giving some legal training to the new crop
of registrars who are non-lawyers. Better still, you may want to reinstate
lawyers back to registrar positions, because for them they are already trained
and know what to do. There are many lawyers who are able to serve in that
capacity.
For now, my clients
request that the names XXL IMMIGRATION AGENCY, GO IMMIGRATION AGENCY, and THE
GLOBE IMMIGRATION AGENCY be reconsidered for reservation on their merits. Their
ticket number was NR - 44202. Your
help will be appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
[signed]
Bakampa B. Brian
Mob.: +256-753-124713
Email: bakampasenior@gmail.com
