The Commercial High Court of Colombo has declined to grant interim injunctions that would have stopped a UK-registered charity from using the “Ride For Ceylon” name, and awarded Rs 75,000 in costs against the applicant, the charity said in a statement carried by the Daily FT on Monday.

Friends of Manipay Hospital (FOMH), which raises funds for Green Memorial Hospital in Manipay, Jaffna, said the order was delivered on 7 October in Case No. CHC/014/2026/IP. The applications were brought by a former volunteer rider against FOMH and other defendants, the charity said.

On FOMH’s account of the judgement, the court accepted that the name had been used for a considerable period in the charity’s fundraising in both the UK and Sri Lanka, and recorded that the plaintiff was a volunteer member who had taken part in that fundraising. It concluded the plaintiff had not established sufficient grounds to stop the defendants using the name until the final determination of the case.

The order also weighed earlier UK proceedings. In decision O/882/22 of 11 October 2022, the UK Intellectual Property Office upheld FOMH’s challenge to a similar claim by another volunteer member. The Colombo court noted the plaintiff knew of those proceedings but had failed to disclose their status in this action.

An order went the other way in March

This is not the dispute’s first ruling, and the earlier one favoured the other side. On 12 March 2026, the Daily Mirror reported that the same court — Judge Amali Ranaweera — had issued an enjoining order barring FOMH and other defendants from using the “Ride for Ceylon” name or any similar mark in Sri Lanka without consent, on a plaint filed by David Rasiah, chairman of Ride For Ceylon (Guarantee) Limited.

In Sri Lankan practice an enjoining order is a short-term order usually granted before the court hears the interim-injunction application it accompanies. That sequence — an enjoining order in March, interim injunctions refused in October — is consistent with one continuing proceeding, but neither filing says so, and the two describe the applicant differently: a company and its chairman in March, “a former volunteer rider” in FOMH’s statement. This desk could not establish whether both concern the same case.

Nothing reported settles ownership of the mark. FOMH said it will consider further remedies including a possible claim in reconvention, and that trustees are meeting legal and travel costs personally rather than from charity funds. Ride For Ceylon has run as an annual charity cycle ride in Sri Lanka, supporting a hospital founded in 1848.

Not reported

The Daily FT piece carries excerpts from FOMH’s own statement, not independent court reporting, and includes no response from the plaintiff, who is not named in it. No verified newsroom was found independently reporting the 7 October order, the full judgement is unpublished, and no trial date is given.