News

Objection to company names

Release date: 26/09/2008

Under the Companies Act 1985, the right to object to the registration of a company name was restricted to very limited circumstances.

This made it difficult to act decisively to protect goodwill in a trading used by an unincorporated business such as a partnership or a sole trader.

The Companies Act 2006 creates a new right for any person to object to a company names adjudicator on the ground that either:
1. it is the same as a name associated with that person, in which he or she has goodwill, or
2. it is sufficiently similar to such a name that its use in the UK would be likely to mislead by suggesting a connection between the company and the person objecting.

There are detailed procedural rules governing how such an objection will be dealt with by the Company names adjudicator, and there are a number of statutory defences to an objection.

For further guidance on the new procedure, please contact Jay Vaghani on (0116) 257 6143.