The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Puregold Construction and Development Corp. to change its corporate name for being confusingly similar to that of supermarket chain Puregold Price Club Inc. of businessman Lucio Co.
The SEC affirmed the decision of the Office of the General Counsel issued on July 2013 directing Puregold Construction to change its corporate name, as Puregold Price Club acquired prior rights over the name.
Puregold Construction appealed the OGC ruling in August 2013, saying there is a big difference in the names of the two companies that the general public can easily mark and distinguished.
The SEC said Puregold Price Club adopted its name as early as its incorporation on Sept. 8, 1998, while Puregold Construction only adopted its name upon its incorporation on May 11, 2009.
“Puregold” is a protected trademark issued by the Intellectual Property Office to Co-owned company in 2005 and 2017.
The SEC said while its guidelines allow a trademark or trade name registered with the IPO to be used as part of the corporate name, prior consent of the trademark owners should be obtained.
It said OGC correctly ruled that Puregold Construction failed to comply with the SEC guidelines because no additional distinctive words were added to differentiate it from Puregold Price Club.
The SEC said it is evident, even to an ordinary person, that “Puregold” is the dominant phrase in both of the parties’ names and that the spelling is identical in both company names.
“The word ‘Pure’ is not necessarily related to ‘Gold’ and thus the combination is unique, leading an ordinary person to assume that Puregold Price Club and Puregold Construction and Development Corp., are related,” the SEC said.
“Moreover Puregold Construction and Development neither sought nor obtained the consent of Puregold Price Club using the name identical to the latter’s unique name and registered trademark ‘Puregold’,” the corporate regulator said.
