Reserving a ltd company name to eventually change to it

[ldjames]

I am planning to change our business name within the next 3-6 months. I am not sure if I will change it at Companies House or just have Old Name Ltd T/a New Name. However, I would like to reserve the limited company name at Companies House now to ensure I have the option to change the company name in 3-6 months or later.

I believe it's quite common to register a dormant company to do this, which is fine, but how would I go about transferring the name from the dormant company to the active company if/when I want to? Would I just dissolve the dormant company making the name available a few days before I change it at Companies House?

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Wouldn't imagine it is worth doing anything at the moment. Do you have any reason to believe that it is likely someone else will be wanting to use that name in the next 3 months? It is quite unlikely I would imagine.
If they do, then you can keep old name and T/A as you mentioned.

Any reason why you wouldn't just change the name at companies house now?

 

[Deleted member 59730]

Your name at Companies House can be anything. To reserve a trading name you need a Trademark.

 

[TODonnell]

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark/apply

Registering a company just ... registers a company. It means someone can't register a company with that exact name in the UK. That's all.

 

[obscure]

+1 to the above answers. CH registration won't stop someone else using the name as a Trademark. You need to register the trademark.

 

[Mr D]

Why consult Ibs? What do they do that the business owner cannot?

 

[ldjames]

Why consult Ibs? What do they do that the business owner cannot?

Go to the toilet more often?

I think I got ahead of myself when I first posted this. I'm still not sure whether to change the company name at Companies House, though. I would prefer to change it and I don't see any benefit of separating the brand and the company. However, I can imagine it would be quite time consuming to update HMRC, our bank (who will probably stop our cards while they send out new ones), our merchant account provider (who will probably need the name at our bank to match....), all of our suppliers to make sure invoices have the correct name etc.