New safeguards for business names

2 October 2008

A new regulation came into effect on 1 October that makes it more difficult for people to register company names in bad faith.

As part of the Companies Act, businesses that discover that their trading names or trade marks have been registered at Companies House by someone else attempting to gain opportunistically from doing so can now challenge for ownership of the name.

‘Squatters’, as they are known, register a business or brand name which they think that another firm may wish to use in order to make a profit from selling it back.

Under the new rules, businesses that believe their names have been registered in bad faith can make formal challenges to a Company Name Adjudicator.

If the complaint is upheld, the Adjudicator will have the authority to force a squatter to change their business name and to pay the legal costs of the challenge.