Advice re limited company 'same as' name

[McPodge]

Hello I am very happy to have found this site. I am looking into registering a a Ltd company after nine months of trading online as a sole trader successfully. I am potentially taking on a business partner who wishes to become ltd.

The problem is that I have built up a brand and reputation as a sole trader and have just found that a company name is already registere only difference is a 'The' & a space.

I don't believe the other company are involved in my industry as it is a niche product and I know my competitors pretty well. The only way I can see of getting round this is to change the name slightly but enough not to have a registration problem.

I do not wish to disclose my current name at the moment so will use a similar name as an example. Let's say I had been trading as 'The Silver Screen' selling movie merchandise. 'Silverscreen Ltd' is taken but let's say I called the company 'The Silver Screen Official Movie Nerchandise Ltd' would that be acceptable?

Also how long does becoming a ltd take with a trained accountant?

Any advice would be extremely appreciated.

 

[David Griffiths]

That kind of difference should be OK. You can check name availablility on the Companies House site - this page has a name availability check button just below the search boxes

When you ask how long does becoming limited take? I assume that you are asking how long it takes to incorporate the company. Our average is three hours, the record is just under two.

 

[mr. mischief]

My normal way of getting round this is to add a relevant place name. So in the case of my own business, when I incorporated Oaktree Accountancy Limited had gone. So I went with:

Oaktree Accountancy (Cockermouth) Limited

This makes it pretty unlikely that Oaktree Accountancy Limited, Inc, or whatever can ever accuse me of "passing off".

Of course Cockermouth is a pretty good place to be associated with. If I was based in Tower Hamlets or Salford I might given this option a body swerve!

 

[IanBrewster]

In some ways, the name of the Ltd co doesn't matter too much. It is perfectly normal for the Trading and Company name to be different.

Take British Gas (trading name) and Centrica (Company name) as an example.