Business Name

Adelante

Hi,
Thanks for taking time out to reads this. I might be me making a mountain out of a mole hill, but Ill try to make it such that it makes some sense.

Ive been trying to get a little business up and running this past while.
Back in '08 I registered a name with the CRO. I thought it was catchy the whole lot, but potential customers misunderstood it, thought I did something different etc, the whole thing never really took off.. so after much back and forth, (ps the business has stalled and never got going as a result). I decided to change the name.. I still have the first name still active

Here's the problem, Ive not recieved my certificate from the CRO which suggests that the name is / has been taken by another business, or is very similiar to another and as such the name cannot be registered.

My query is this, could I use this new business name for my website and go to the CRO and ask them if it can be registered as "X" t/a "y", where "y" is the original name that I do have registered

I might be helpful to know that Im registered as a sole trader with this original name so its "JoeBloggs" t/a Joes-Bloggs

Hope it makes sense, Ive tried different names previous but the same issue with the CRO they cant register it as another company/business name has it or is in a similar field etc etc

With this name, friends, potential clients and customers warm to it and think it more suited.
Is there another way around this...Can I just trade as the original business name use the new name for the website and advertising etc

One other thing if I got the new name trademarked would that help..

Sorry there's alot going on there, apologies if it sounds complicated, hope someone other there can shed some light.
I will be calling the Cro this week anyway but it would be nice to get a neutral opinion too
Thanks in advance
Adelante
Ps Mod's if this is the wrong forum please feel free to move accordingly

MOH

Do you mean you never received the cert for the original name back in 08?

Have you tried searching the CRO to see if the name is registered to anyone? (make sure you select the option for both company and business name).
Shouldn't matter if someone else has the same/similar business name registered, there's no guarantee of uniqueness, but if there's a similar company name registered that could be the issue.

I had a problem before registering a name, but they usually get in touch with you and tell you what the issue is. If you never heard anything at all maybe it just got lost in the post.

Adelante

Hi MOH,
Just to clarify I did get the cert for the original name back in 2008.
Todate Ive not recieved a cert nor phone call from the Cro regarding the new name...

jmcc

Adelante wrote: »

Hi MOH,
Just to clarify I did get the cert for the original name back in 2008.
Todate Ive not recieved a cert nor phone call from the Cro regarding the new name...

Sometimes the CRO has a backlog and it can take a few weeks for a certificate to be issued. However a Registered Business Name (RBN) certificate is not a trademark and does not really confer any special rights as would a trademark. There are multiple RBNs for some terms.

Regards...jmcc

realdanbreen

I don't want to hijack your topic Adelante but my query might run in tandem with it. I was thinking of setting up as a sole trader-buying and selling products and was wondering what the steps/stages are and if it is very costly?

MOH

Adelante wrote: »

Hi MOH,
Just to clarify I did get the cert for the original name back in 2008.
Todate Ive not recieved a cert nor phone call from the Cro regarding the new name...

It can take 3 or 4 weeks to process.

When I was changing the registered owner of a business name before we started trading, I just submitted a new RBN1, thinking that since there's no protection on business names, it wouldn't matter that it was already registered.
They rejected it as the name was already registered to someone else at the same address, so I had to submit an RBN3 to terminate the old registration first.

If your new name is very similar to the previous one, they might have a similar issue with that - but they will send you a letter exaplining the problem and telling them what you need to do. If it's been more than 4/5 weeks, maybe give them a ring.

mneylon

If the two business names are different there shouldn't be an issue even if the address is the same.

It's a different matter if you're switching the type ie. sole trader to LTD "trading as" and the address hadn't changed. (I think MOH covered that though)

Adelante

Hi again,
So first off thank you for all your feedback...I rang the CRO and spoke with a lovely woman.. never got her name my bad, but she was very patient and understanding, she said that I could file a RBN2 which means I can change the orginally registered name to the new name and keep the business number
So now the easy bit... to make the business a success :eek:
Thanks again for all your help much appreciated... watch this space!!