Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
Ukrainian blocked from using betting trade name after fallout with Kenyan partner
A Kenyan court has barred a Ukrainian businessman from using the Zukabet trade name, ruling it belongs to his former partner after their business fallout.
A Ukrainian businessman has been blocked from using the trade name for a betting firm that was registered by his former Kenyan business partner after the two fell out.
Anatoliy Kavelanko and his company, Muvans Limited, have been barred from using the Zukabet trade name after a judge ruled that there was evidence that Samuel Mungai Muigai was the registered owner of the trademark.
High Court judge Benjamin Musyoki noted that the trademark was issued to Mr Mungai on August 4, 2022, at a time when the two parties were on good terms.
“Now that they have disagreed, the proprietor (Mr Mungai) of the trademark has no obligation and cannot be forced to assign or give consent to its use in a specific way unless there is proof of a contract between the parties,” said the judge.
The judge added, “The defendant is hereby restrained whether by itself, its directors, officers, servants or agents or any of them or otherwise howsoever from doing the following acts or any of them that is to say, using the word Zukabet registered as trademark number 111268 in any context concerning betting, placement of odds or gambling matters generally”.
Mr Mungai stated that he was the proprietor of the trademark, which Muvans Ltd had been using in its betting business without his consent or permission.
He said that he had been a promoter and director of the company until November 2022, when he resigned, allegedly out of frustration with two other directors.
Mr Mungai said he had run the company by providing expertise and a licence, while Dr Kavelanko was to provide finances.
During their business relationship, he said he had allowed Muvans Ltd to use the trademark in its activities.
He added that he had been using the trademark prior to the incorporation of Muvans Ltd, but had stopped doing so after joining the firm to concentrate on its business.
He said that at some point, they wanted to expand the company, but disagreements arose between him and the other two directors, and since Mr Kavelanko held the majority shares, he was able to push his position, and the disagreements became irreconcilable.
Mr Mungai said that he left the company in November 2022, informing his former partners that he did not want his trademark to be used. However, he received no response, hence this lawsuit.
He added that, even after he obtained a temporary court injunction in March 2023, the company continued to trade under the same name.
Dr Kavelanko opposed the case, saying the company engaged Mr Mungai as a promoter to undertake the registration of the trademark.
He said that at incorporation, the firm’s director was Mr Mungai, while he and Eunice Wairimu Wangunyo were only shareholders. Mr Mungai was later brought in as a director of the company.
The Ukrainian claimed that he had facilitated and financed the trademark registration, despite it being registered before Muvans Ltd was incorporated.
He claimed that Mr Mungai had taken advantage of his Ukrainian nationality and his absence to register the trademark in his own name.
Justice Musyoki, however, said there was no evidence that Mr Mungai applied for the registration of the trademark with the intention of assigning it to Muvans Ltd.
