Using a Name of a Dissolved Company

If you propose to use a given name as a trading name and not a Limited Company then you need to be checking against any registered and unregistered trade marks. If it is the name of a dissolved company then you can use that name, subject to the above.

Visit;-

www.ipo.gov.uk

where you can conduct limited registered trade mark searches. Please bear in mind the limitations of these searches.

If it transpires this company did own a registered trade mark or trade marks, the rights will, unless there was an assignment prior to the dissolution of the company, have been transferred to the crown (via Bona Vacantia) and you should contact the Treasury Solicitor with view to buying the trade mark registrations. A link to the relevant website is below:-

http://www.bonavacantia.gov.uk/

Generally the crown will sell those rights to you for around 1300 pounds.

With regards unregistered rights, there is no centralised database as the rights are bulit up via use. Check on the web, check trade journals. Common law trade mark rights may still exist in the form of residual goodwill based on past use. However, if the company is no more and unless these rights were assigned to another party its likey (a) the goodwill has dissolved away due to non-use and (b) no one would be around any to enforce those rights.

Have you conducted a full trade mark search for the brand? A registered trade mark can prevent the use of not only identical marks but similar marks and although the identical name may not be registered its possible someone else may have rights to a similar brand and stop your use. You can ask the Search and Advisory service at the UKIPO to conduct such a search (link above) of registered rights, but I would recommend approaching a trade mark attorney who can conduct such a search and if you feel it necessary conduct common law searches. A full registered rights search would cost around 200 to 250 pounds and similar costs associated with a common law search.

You should also consider registering the brand name yourself if all the searches are clear to safeguard your rights. You can try to do it yourself via the UKIPO or again i recommend apporaching a trade mark attorney. If you just wished to cover retail services it would cost 200 pounds to do it yourself or around 600 pounds if all went well with a Trade Mark Attorney.

A link to trade mark attorney firms websites below:-

http://www.itma.org.uk/tm-attorneys/online-services.htm

A link to an explanatory note on the Basics of Trade Mark Law. Click on the link on the right:-

http://www.pinsentmasons.com/sectorsservices/trademarks.aspx

All the best.

You can only make limited searches on the ipo site - infringement is decided on the basis of confusing similarity which requires a wider search to check for.

(For example, an energy drink called "Viagrene" was found to infringe the Viagra trade mark.)

A registered trade mark attorney can make a wider search for you on the trade marks registerl - we provide this service at £180 plus VAT for a basic name search with detailed advice.

What would be the position if you need want to use the name for a newly formed limited company ?

sorry to bump this, but I was after the same thing and came across this:

http://www.completeformations.co.uk/companyfaqs/company_name/dissolved_names.html

The advice you have posted a link to is incomplete as it takes no account of the possible risk concerning either registered trade marks or passing off based on residual goodwill.

For example, some years ago when I was in-house at GKN we had a situation where a third party resurrrected the name of a defunct group subsiduary (the business had been closed down within the previous five years so the trade mark was still valid) in which there continued to be a valuable reputation and set themselves up in business as a reincarnated version of the defunct company's business.

However, GKN had retained the existing trade mark registration for the defunct subsidary's name and also was the owner of the subsidiary's residual business goodwill.

GKN was thus able to take swift legal action for trade mark infringement and passing off and immediately shut down the new limited company which had been registered under the old name.

To recap, you can never ever rely on just checking the Companies Register (or domain names for that matter) to tell you if a name may be available for re-use, you always need to have a proper trade mark search made with advice from a qualified trade mark attorney.