Company Names Adjudicator

The UK IPO sets up new tribunal to deal with disputes over company names.

A new tribunal, under the Companies Act 2006, was established on 1st October 2008 to deal solely with complaints about opportunistic company name registrations. The tribunal resides at the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office.

An example of an opportunistic company name registration is when a person registers a variation of the name of a well known company in order to obtain money from the company to buy the registration, similar in nature to internet domain name cyber squatting.

Any person may object to a company’s registered name on the grounds,

a) that it is the same as a name associated with the applicant or the complainant in which he has goodwill; or

b) that it is sufficiently similar to such a name that its use in the United Kingdom will be likely to mislead by suggesting a connection between the company and the applicant.

The person making the complaint does not necessarily have to have a registered company name before making an application. However the complainant will have to demonstrate goodwill in the name at the time that it was adopted by the registration holder as the company name.

If you would like more information on the Company Names Adjudicator, please contact us.