UAL wins court order against UACL rebranding

Another name change on the cards TERRY HUTSON IT’S LESS than two months since the fanfare of Unifeeder being rebranded as United Africa Container Lines (UACL), but the company has been given one month by the Cape Supreme Court to find another name. The reason is an application by container cabotage broker United African Lines, which successfully argued that the names were sufficiently similar to create confusion. Niemesh Singh, managing director of United African Lines (the cabotage version, not the shipping company), said both companies offered logistical solutions for the movement of containers in the southern African region, which left him no alternative but to challenge Unifeeder’s right to use a similar name that would result in confusion for customers and container depots. “We’re extremely proud of our name and for the past ten years have built up a pool of reliable road transporters. We were surprised and disappointed when Unifeeder began trading with a name so closely resembling our own. Our attorneys approached them immediately but they refused to stop and went ahead with a marketing launch a few days later. This left us with no alternative but to approach the courts for relief. Our relationship with both Unifeeder and its shareholders Safmarine and Unicorn has been a long-standing one and we deal with them on a weekly if not daily basis.” According to sources, Unifeeder conceded the court application without any opposition but was ordered to pay United African Lines’ legal costs and was given one month to find another name. Dave Rennie, managing director of Unifeeder/UACL, who announced at the end of March that the name change was being made because it better reflected Unifeeder’s core activities, was not available for comment last week.