Equity Bank’s Equitel trade name attracts legal dispute

A leading retail commercial bank and an insurance agency are locked in a fierce battle over ownership of the business name ‘Equitel’.

This dispute over who should use the name Equitel could end up in court if both Equitel Insurance Agency and Equity Group Holdings Limited, which is piloting a mobile money platform named Equitel, do not agree to settle the matter amicably.

The set-back comes as Equity Holdings Limited, through its subsidiary Finserve Africa Limited, fights off some six cases already filed in court, stopping it from rolling out the Equitel Thin Sim mobile banking platform, a revolutionary product that could alter the entire mobile banking platform.

In a letter dated November 10, 2014, Sisule Munyi Kilonzo and Associates, lawyers acting for Equitel Insurance Agency, terms as unlawful the use of the trade name Equitel by Equity Holdings Limited. Equitel Insurance Agency is demanding that Equity Holdings desist from using the trade mark, including withdrawal of all publicity and advertising materials that contain this word.

Law firm Sisule Munyi Kilonzi and Associates, has threatened to take legal action against Equity Holdings Limited, if their demands for withdrawal of the name Equitel are not met.

But in response, Coulson Harney, representing Fineserve Africa Limited, a subsidiary of Equity Holdings Limited and proprietor of the registered trade mark TM 80606 Equitel, denies any wrong doing. This is in a response letter dated December 5, 2014 written to Sisule Munyi and Kilonzi advocates.

“Our client is the proprietor of Equity Insurance Agency registered as such in 2007, to provide insurance services to its customers. Therefore, registration of Equitel Insurance Agency was targeted to misrepresent to the public that it was offering our client’s insurance services,” said in part a response letter sent to Equitel Insurance Agency lawyers and signed by Anthony Njogu- a lawyer at Coulson Harney.

Thin Sim

Equity Holdings is further accusing Equitel Insurance Agency of using insider knowledge to set up its operations, given that it was an account holder at the bank and had first-hand experience of the services Equity Insurance was offering and, therefore, sought association in the registration of its own business name.

Section 7 of the Trademarks Act, Chapter 506 of the Laws of Kenya states in part- that the right of a proprietor of a trademark is infringed upon by a person who, not being a proprietor or registered under the trade mark, uses a mark identical with or nearly resembling it as to deceive or cause confusion in the course of trade.

“The mere fact that your client may have been the first to register the trade name does not override the common law protection of the name, goodwill and reputation amassed by our client over the years’’, said Njogu in response on behalf of Equity Holdings.

Equity Holdings has also threatened to take this matter to court, one against a pile of six legal suits-allegedly instituted by the competition through proxies, effectively putting launch of its Thin Sim mobile banking technology, on the back burners.

“We have had many roadblocks but in the fullness of time, the truth will be clear,” said Dr James Mwangi-Equity Holdings Chief Executive and MD.