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Our name has been taken from us
We do apologise for troubling you so soon after our last newsletter but we thought you would like to know the impact upon your Association of a letter we received from Dr Somerville-Ford who lives in Ringwood.
Here’s what he said:
“The time has come for me to close you down.
This week I incorporated West Christchurch Residents Association Ltd (by Guarantee). As your operation is an unincorporated association I must advise you that you may no longer use the title “West Christchurch Residents Association”.
Should you distribute any documents, newsletters or other circulars using that title you will be guilty of “passing off” and the new Association will take immediate legal action against you and in so doing will apply for costs”.
“Passing off” is what lawyers called a tort and it protects the goodwill of a trader from a misrepresentation
Why would anybody do that?
Our last newsletter contained the following paragraphs
You may have received a colourful leaflet bearing the logos of CBC and Bournemouth Borough Council (BBC) and headlined in yellow “Retain Your Independence”. From reading the leaflet you could be forgiven for believing that CBC and BBC are both demeaning the consultancy Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) and suggesting you vote against council reorganization.
Despite its appearance, this is not an official document produced jointly by the two councils. The leaflet is the brainchild of an individual based in Ringwood. Various aspects of the leaflet must be questioned regarding the accuracy of the information portrayed and you should treat every word in it with considerable scepticism.
Although we didn’t name Dr Somerville-Ford we exposed his circular to our residents as (a) having used the logo of Christchurch Council without their permission (b) having used the logo of Bournemouth Council without their permission (c) containing factually inaccurate information within it.
As reported in the Echo, Dr Somerville-Ford was obliged to withdraw the circular.
We do not seek a fight with this man. As far as we are concerned he is entitled to his opinions - as are we! We do reserve the right to point out to our Members transgressions such as using a Council logo without prior permission and to highlight any factual inaccuracy.
What Next?
We are advised that as we have evidence of many years concurrent use of the WCRA name then we are in a strong position to take counter-legal action against Dr Somerville-Ford for “passing off” our legitimate name.
The formation of a limited company does not mean that he has the common-law rights to a name. This can only be attained through concurrent use. However, that would mean spending a lot of our member's money on litigation that there is no guarantee that we would win. We have therefore decided to take a less expensive and more pragmatic course.
We have changed our name.
Your Residents Association is functioning. We will continue to keep you informed through these newsletters that are written by a team of local residents. We will continue to lobby local Councils on your behalf.
And remember, anything you receive from West Christchurch Residents Association didn’t come from us. We don’t want anybody to be misled!
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