Someone is using my company name is this allowed?
Discussion
I was thinking of buying another domain name and checked if it was available and someone has bought it (I have our company's name .com and wanted our company's name .co.uk). I can live with that to a certain extent but when I went to this .co.uk company's website they are trading under our company name I was just wondering if this was allowed as we are a limited company and our company name is registered?
UK Company names are restricted by Companies House.
If a limited company already exists on the company register, then no other limited company can use that limited company name in the UK.
Threrefore, if XYZ Ltd already exists at Companies House, no other limited company can call itself XYZ Ltd.
Trade names are not protected in the same way. If XYZ Ltd trades as "ABC Paint Strippers", there is nothing to stop another limited company, partnership or sole-trader from also using the trade name "ABC Paint Strippers".
However, if your company XYZ Ltd t/as ABC Paint Strippers feels that any other business calling itself ABC Paint Strippers is passing itself off as your businesses or trying to cash in on the trade you've already established, you can apply to the courts to make them stop using that name.
Internet domain names are a whole new ball game and, as far as I know, there is no central body that regulates these names. As the Internet is international by nature, I doubt if there ever will be any means of regulating what names are allocated.
In the UK, you could apply through the courts to have similar domain names to yours blocked under the "passing off" concept but trying to enforce any such rulings might be difficult.
If a limited company already exists on the company register, then no other limited company can use that limited company name in the UK.
Threrefore, if XYZ Ltd already exists at Companies House, no other limited company can call itself XYZ Ltd.
Trade names are not protected in the same way. If XYZ Ltd trades as "ABC Paint Strippers", there is nothing to stop another limited company, partnership or sole-trader from also using the trade name "ABC Paint Strippers".
However, if your company XYZ Ltd t/as ABC Paint Strippers feels that any other business calling itself ABC Paint Strippers is passing itself off as your businesses or trying to cash in on the trade you've already established, you can apply to the courts to make them stop using that name.
Internet domain names are a whole new ball game and, as far as I know, there is no central body that regulates these names. As the Internet is international by nature, I doubt if there ever will be any means of regulating what names are allocated.
In the UK, you could apply through the courts to have similar domain names to yours blocked under the "passing off" concept but trying to enforce any such rulings might be difficult.
If the company is not in the same field as you and can't be considered as 'passing off' then I believe there is very little you can do about it.
The same situation happened to us about 3 years ago, we discovered a one-man band set up a computer consultancy at the opposite end of the country trading as the same name (without the Ltd). Not a lot we could do, had a little 'chat' with him to make sure there was no buisness overlap (we are in Industrial Machine Vision - use computers!) and established that we would pass anything that came to the wrong company to the right one. Never heard anything since, he's still trading though.
There are often hundreds of companies trading under the same name in the UK, think of popular names for plumbers, electrians, small garages, etc.
The only way to well and truely protect your name is to trademark it, and that will protect it within a designated fields
With hindsight you should have registered the .co.uk domain when you started the company or chosen another name!
Unless you think that this other company will encroach on your business then I would just get on with your own business and keep a close eye on the .co.uk to see if ever 'accidently lapses' and then grab it. If there is a crossover in business then ring them up (or get you solicitor) to do it and have a chat, remember they may have trademarked the name and be entitled to use it!
davidy
The same situation happened to us about 3 years ago, we discovered a one-man band set up a computer consultancy at the opposite end of the country trading as the same name (without the Ltd). Not a lot we could do, had a little 'chat' with him to make sure there was no buisness overlap (we are in Industrial Machine Vision - use computers!) and established that we would pass anything that came to the wrong company to the right one. Never heard anything since, he's still trading though.
There are often hundreds of companies trading under the same name in the UK, think of popular names for plumbers, electrians, small garages, etc.
The only way to well and truely protect your name is to trademark it, and that will protect it within a designated fields
With hindsight you should have registered the .co.uk domain when you started the company or chosen another name!
Unless you think that this other company will encroach on your business then I would just get on with your own business and keep a close eye on the .co.uk to see if ever 'accidently lapses' and then grab it. If there is a crossover in business then ring them up (or get you solicitor) to do it and have a chat, remember they may have trademarked the name and be entitled to use it!
davidy
OK just checked your website and the .co.uk one and there is 'overlap' although you primarily are a distributor and the other party is an 'installer'
I would have a chat with a commercial solicitor and see what your options are, you have no entitlement to the .co.uk but you are entitled to some protection (regarding controlled access gates especially) from 'passing off'.
He may have no idea that there is a relatively local company (ltd) with the same name.
If you do this carefully and constructively you may be able to get him to modify his name and get him as a customer!
davidy
I would have a chat with a commercial solicitor and see what your options are, you have no entitlement to the .co.uk but you are entitled to some protection (regarding controlled access gates especially) from 'passing off'.
He may have no idea that there is a relatively local company (ltd) with the same name.
If you do this carefully and constructively you may be able to get him to modify his name and get him as a customer!
davidy
davidy said:
OK just checked your website and the .co.uk one and there is 'overlap' although you primarily are a distributor and the other party is an 'installer'
davidy
davidy
Thanks for the replies. We have just got on to a solicitor friend who is going to deal with it for us.
We are installers and distributors it is just that we have an online store selling the security products but our main income is generated from installations.
Again davidy you are most probably right that the other company (I think it is an one man band) doesn't realise the situation.
I'm not too bothered about the domain name as I understand that and at the time of buying the .com domain name my web hosting company is US-based and I couldn't buy a .co.uk domain name from them so just left it like that. In hindsight I should have bought the .co.uk name but hey ho it's sold now.
bossgriff
Best of luck in resolving it, perhaps you could consider as well revamping your website to make it clear what your company does (and having a link to your online store), it may help to prevent this sort of situation arising again (especially as the name could be picked by anyone in a 150 mile long 40 mile wide corridor wanting to do security related work).
I would also consider tradmarking the name with respect to your field.
davidy
Best of luck in resolving it, perhaps you could consider as well revamping your website to make it clear what your company does (and having a link to your online store), it may help to prevent this sort of situation arising again (especially as the name could be picked by anyone in a 150 mile long 40 mile wide corridor wanting to do security related work).
I would also consider tradmarking the name with respect to your field.
davidy
I had similar situation i had it registered as a Ltd company but they had been trading longer than me i'd do some homework first just because you registered it at companies house it don't mean anything in a court of law if they can prove they have been trading longer than you hope you have been trading longer it will make your case much stronger good luck.
Eric Mc said:
Internet domain names are a whole new ball game and, as far as I know, there is no central body that regulates these names. As the Internet is international by nature, I doubt if there ever will be any means of regulating what names are allocated.
not entirely true sir (never thought I'd get to say that i must admit!) They're called nominet www.nominet.org.uk and do indeed regulate domain names - though it is a reactive process. I've even won a couple of disputes
admittedly not hugely useful in this case for reasons highlighted by Daviddy but thought worth mentioning.
nightmare said:
tinman0 said:
Eric Mc said:
Who runs it - the government?
sigh Nominet. No one runs Nominet, not even their members.
lol....very true.....good question Eric....I have no idea! their site doesnt provde much in the way of illumination either
Nominet is owned by the members, of which I am two members.
I remember when it started, and it was not what the industry wanted. The UK had a perfectly good system where .uk domains were free of charge. The industry wanted to keep .uk domains free at point of registration. However, the guy that had ultimate technical control wanted something different.
He essentially told the industry what he wanted and how he was going to achieve it. And put it through. Nominet was the result.
As a way of getting industry support, which i'm not sure he got, he gave all the members a part share in Nominet. Nominet would run the .uk namespace on behalf of the UK Internet Industry.
I and a couple of others were dead against this right from the start as we felt that this was empire building for the sake of empire building. No one really wanted Nominet, the existing system wasn't broken, the industry offered alternate ways for the future - many of them to keep domains free of charge. But eventually all were rejected, and Nominet went forward. The Naming Committee would close down, and Nominet would start up.
The last night of the Naming Committee was sublime. The Naming Committee had refused the application of
.co.uk for a couple of years, but on the final night it finally got through, along with every other swear word and sex act imaginable. In fact, thousands of domains were registered free of charge that night. I think i was the person who managed to break the system that night - totally by accident. I went on holiday the following day, and by the Thursday i was in about 3 daily newspapers for my accidental exploit that ultimately failed.
They were fun times.
My reading of what Nominet are up to at the moment is to remove the link from themselves to the members, so that they are more directly accountable to the public. I could be very wrong on that, but the membership stopped them in their tracks a few months ago. And rightly so.
Sounds like it is very much a "private" set of arrangements then and has no real "legal" standing. No more than "business names" have any legal standing.
It is obviously very different from the Companies House situation where the government controls the issuing of names and there is statutory legislation governing how names are issued.
It is obviously very different from the Companies House situation where the government controls the issuing of names and there is statutory legislation governing how names are issued.
If I already owned www.xyz.co.uk but hadn't registered it as a limited company, could someone that bought and registered a company with this name expect me to give them the domain for nothing?
I have a number of personal domain - some with a family connection - that I would like to pass onto my children. They'll come the day when most of todays available domains will only be available with numbers attached or severely hyphenated.
I have a number of personal domain - some with a family connection - that I would like to pass onto my children. They'll come the day when most of todays available domains will only be available with numbers attached or severely hyphenated.
Limited company regulations have no bearings on the situation regrading "Internet" names.
As I said earlier, the availability of limited company names is strictly controlled by a government agency (Companies House) and you MUST obtain their permission to use whatever name you select for your business. If they block the use of a particular name you desire, you have to find an alternative name.
Internet names are much more loosely governed. If you discover that some other organisation has a domain name very close or identical to your limited company name, you may find it very difficult to have their use of that name blocked - unless they were claiming they were YOU. For instance, if they had inserted "ltd" or "limited" in their title they could be blocked because they could be blatantly trying to "cash in" on your company's reputation. In that cse, you could easily have them stopped because they would obviously be misleading people by using a "ltd" in their title when they couldn't possibly be limited company with that name (as you would already have that "limited company" registered at Companies House).
Problems could possibly arise because of the international nature of the Internet. Countries which use similar limited comapny structures, such as the Irish Republic, could very well have limited companies with identical names to UK limited companies and if such companies had an Internet presence as well, there could be confusion. How you could go about preventing that type of genuine situation is hard to see.
As I said earlier, the availability of limited company names is strictly controlled by a government agency (Companies House) and you MUST obtain their permission to use whatever name you select for your business. If they block the use of a particular name you desire, you have to find an alternative name.
Internet names are much more loosely governed. If you discover that some other organisation has a domain name very close or identical to your limited company name, you may find it very difficult to have their use of that name blocked - unless they were claiming they were YOU. For instance, if they had inserted "ltd" or "limited" in their title they could be blocked because they could be blatantly trying to "cash in" on your company's reputation. In that cse, you could easily have them stopped because they would obviously be misleading people by using a "ltd" in their title when they couldn't possibly be limited company with that name (as you would already have that "limited company" registered at Companies House).
Problems could possibly arise because of the international nature of the Internet. Countries which use similar limited comapny structures, such as the Irish Republic, could very well have limited companies with identical names to UK limited companies and if such companies had an Internet presence as well, there could be confusion. How you could go about preventing that type of genuine situation is hard to see.
The only real likelihood(s) of you being forced to hand over a domain occur in the following situation
1) Medicines. You have bought the domain name of a trademarked prescription only medicine. Should the company who owns that product complina you will be forced to hand it over (this is NOT a trademark issue incidentally but considered (rightly so) a public health concern.)
2) Cybersquatting...in other words buying somehing with an already clear public perception (like ww.madonna.com) and then using it to, say, run a porn site, or sell unofficial madonna gaer etc.. M&S and others got their names back along these lines. The view is taken that "you're just being a little c*ck, give it back" if it seems reasonable to everyone else.
There have been a few odd ones....where I cannot see why someone would have lost the dispute....but in general it does seem to be dealt with moderately sensibly....If you have an obvious family connection etc. then you should have no problem. Registering a company AFTER you have bought a name is simply bad MR on their part!
1) Medicines. You have bought the domain name of a trademarked prescription only medicine. Should the company who owns that product complina you will be forced to hand it over (this is NOT a trademark issue incidentally but considered (rightly so) a public health concern.)
2) Cybersquatting...in other words buying somehing with an already clear public perception (like ww.madonna.com) and then using it to, say, run a porn site, or sell unofficial madonna gaer etc.. M&S and others got their names back along these lines. The view is taken that "you're just being a little c*ck, give it back" if it seems reasonable to everyone else.
There have been a few odd ones....where I cannot see why someone would have lost the dispute....but in general it does seem to be dealt with moderately sensibly....If you have an obvious family connection etc. then you should have no problem. Registering a company AFTER you have bought a name is simply bad MR on their part!
I was thinking of buying another domain name and checked if it was available and someone has bought it (I have our company's name .co.uk and wanted our company's name .com). I can live with that to a certain extent but when I went to this .com company's website they are trading under our company name I was just wondering if this was allowed as we are a limited company and our company name is registered?
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