Law firm Stone King has successfully represented a Cambridge charity in its bid to retain its name.
Its client, the Cambridge Islamic College, was required by the Charity Commission to change its name as it was felt to be too similar to that of the Cambridge Muslim College.
But in a landmark decision following an 18-month dispute the Upper Charity Tribunal has confirmed the decision of the First Tier Tribunal, with its ruling published recently.
Stone King’s Robert Meakin, a Partner in the Charity & Social Enterprise Team, said: “Our Charity & Social Enterprise Team is delighted to have achieved a successful outcome for our client.”
The law firm has been ranked in the top three as Best For Charities in The Times Best Law Firms 2019, and also recognised in respected legal guides Chambers and The Legal 500.
Mrs Justice Rose held that the words “Muslim” and “Islamic” were visually, aurally and conceptually different and said in her judgement: “We find we are not satisfied that the words “Muslim” and “Islamic” are “too like” each other when applying a visual or aural test. They are obviously different words, which look and sound different. We accept that some confusion between them as terms is possible if one takes a conceptual approach, but that is not in our judgement the test to be applied.”
Cambridge Islamic College is a registered charity with the objectives of ‘The advancement of education, in particular but not exclusively through the provision of higher education in Islamic Studies’.
Robert can be contacted on 01223 612077.