Registering your business name

[Vicky R]

I hope I am posting this in the right place!

My question is about registering a business name. If I understand correctly, you can only have a certain name as a Ltd. company if it doesn't already exist, but two sole traders can have the same name in different parts of the country. What if you are starting out as a sole trader with a view to becoming Ltd. a few years down the line...can you register your business name so that it's still available to you as a Ltd. company when you are ready to change your business status, or do you just have to hope that nobody will have your name by then?

Hope that makes sense!

Vicky

 

[Alpha]

Not really but you can form a Limited company and keep it as dormant until you wish to use it.

 

[Vicky R]

Thanks, Alan. So I can form a limited company, keep it dormant but trade as a sole trader under the same name?

Vicky

 

[VeryMark]

What will give you a national right in your industry to the use of a particular name or anything confusingly similar, whether as a company name, business name, product name, domain name etc, is trade mark registration - see our website at www.crossguard.info for further info.

However, you can also register the name as a limited company and domain name to keep it free, even if they are not used in trading.