A company registered under your name, a rival trading under it, or a website built on it. Which right you hold decides the route. The first step is evidence and a carefully worded letter, at a fixed price agreed in writing before work starts.
The day you find out, the instinct is to send them an angry message or post about it. Hold off for a few days. What you can do depends on what right you hold, where they are using the name and how long they have been doing it, and the first letter lands better once those are pinned down.
The enquiry that led to this service came from a small business whose name somebody else wanted to use and trade under. The questions were the ones every owner in that position asks: can they do that, and what do I do about it. The answer starts with what you can prove.
Screenshots of their website, listings, social accounts and signs, with the date showing, and where each appears.
Your first invoices, the date your site went live, packaging, press and posts that show customers know you by the name.
Companies House, the UK trade mark register and the owner of any .uk domain, for both names.
Emails, calls and reviews from customers who confused the two of you. Real confusion is strong evidence in every route.
Registering a company at Companies House, or buying a domain, gives you no trade mark rights. Companies House does stop a second company registering a name that is the same as one already on its index (Companies Act 2006, section 66), and that is as far as it goes.
The courts describe the test as goodwill, misrepresentation and damage. Missing one, the claim fails.
Customers in the UK know the name and connect it with your business. Turnover, advertising, reviews and press under the name all count, with dates.
Their use leads the public to believe their goods or services are yours, or connected with you.
Lost sales, customers going to them by mistake, or harm to your reputation when their work is poor and customers think it was yours.
Four places a name turns up, and what happens in each. More than one can apply at once: a company name, a matching .uk domain and a shop sign can all be dealt with together.
Anyone with goodwill in a name can object to a company’s registered name at the Company Names Tribunal under section 69 of the Companies Act 2006: the name is the same as yours, or so similar that it would be likely to mislead people into thinking the company is connected with you.
Once that is shown, the company has to prove a defence: it registered the name before your goodwill began, it is a formation agent’s name available to sell to you on standard terms, it adopted the name in good faith, or your interests are not adversely affected to any significant extent. If it cannot, the objection is upheld. If the main purpose was to extract money from you or stop you registering the name, the objection is upheld even against the first two defences. A company that ignores an order to change its name can have a new one chosen for it by the adjudicator (section 73(4)).
If you are a company yourself and their name is the same as or too like yours, Companies House can direct a change, but only within 12 months of their registration (sections 67 and 68).
Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service covers .uk domains. You must prove, on the balance of probabilities, that you have rights in a name identical or similar to the domain, and that the domain in their hands is an abusive registration: registered or used in a way that took unfair advantage of your rights or was unfairly detrimental to them.
Signs of abuse in Nominet’s policy include registering to sell the domain to you or a competitor, registering it to block you, using it to disrupt your business, and using it in a way that confuses people into thinking it is yours. If the other side responds, the dispute goes to mediation first. An independent expert can order the domain transferred, suspended or cancelled. Other endings, such as .com, are handled under different rules.
Here the route is a letter first, and a court claim if the letter does not work: infringement if you hold a registered trade mark, passing off if you do not. A letter that sets out your evidence of earlier use can settle it without going to court.
If it goes to court in England and Wales, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has a small claims track for claims under £10,000, and a multi-track where damages are capped at £500,000 and recoverable legal costs at £60,000. In Scotland, complex or valuable claims go to the Court of Session; in Northern Ireland, to the High Court. Court proceedings are handled by AD Solicitors.
If they have applied to register your name as a trade mark, you can oppose the application at the Intellectual Property Office. An application can be refused because of an earlier unregistered right protected by the law of passing off (section 5(4)(a)), so you do not need a registration of your own to object.
Applications are published in the Trade Marks Journal. The opposition period is two months from publication, extended to three if you file form TM7A, a notice of threatened opposition, within the first two months. Miss it, and the mark can be registered.
It sets out who you are and the name you trade under, your evidence of earlier use, what they are doing and where, and what you want: stop using the name, change the company name, or hand over the domain, by a reasonable date. It goes to the business using the name.
A cease and desist letter template shows the shape. The judgement is in what to claim and what to leave out.
The Trade Marks Act 1994 lets anyone aggrieved by an unjustified threat of infringement proceedings bring a claim against the person who made it (sections 21 and 21A). A threat to the business that is itself putting the sign on goods or supplying services under it is not actionable. Threats sent to its customers, stockists or suppliers are where the risk sits. The government’s own guidance says you can be sued for making unjustified threats.
A registration turns the next dispute from proving goodwill into showing a certificate. You can apply yourself on gov.uk or through a trade mark attorney; filing and running applications is specialist work we leave to them. What we can do is tell you, from the evidence, whether your name looks registrable and which classes your trade covers.
The UK trade mark register for the same or similar names, in the classes of goods and services you use.
£205 for one class and £60 for each extra class, on the official fees from 1 April 2026.
Examined within about two weeks, then published for two months so others can oppose.
Around three months after applying if nobody opposes. It lasts ten years and can be renewed.
A registration does not stop someone who was already using the name in a particular locality before you: the Act protects an earlier right that applies only in that locality (section 11(3)).
From their company’s registration, for Companies House to direct a change of a name that is the same as or too like your company’s (Companies Act 2006, section 68).
From publication of their trade mark application, to oppose it; three months if you file a TM7A in time.
Knowingly putting up with the use of a registered mark for five continuous years ends your right to challenge it on an earlier right, unless it was applied for in bad faith (Trade Marks Act 1994, section 48).
We go through your evidence and theirs, tell you which right you hold and which route fits, draft the first letter, and prepare a Company Names Tribunal application or a Nominet complaint with its evidence. Each step has a fixed price agreed in writing before it starts, and subscribers get 10% off. At the £200 to £350 +VAT an hour commonly quoted for this kind of work, the cost of a name dispute billed by the hour is unknown until it ends.
If the other side will not stop and the dispute has to go to court for infringement or passing off, the claim is run by AD Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (no. 8011228). You are told at the scoping stage, before you have spent anything. Preparing for a dispute covers what that involves.
The guide to IP basics for business covers ownership of logos, websites and designs. The law described here is that of England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own courts and court procedure.
Buzz Legal handles contracts, terms of trade, employment paperwork and dispute preparation. Court work, and the other activities reserved by law, are carried out by AD Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (no. 8011228). How this works, in full. For advice on your own situation, contact us with the name and who is using it.
Registering a company stops a second company being registered with the same name, and gives you no trade mark rights beyond that. A sole trader or partnership can trade under a name that matches your company’s, and a company can register a similar one. What lets you stop them is a registered trade mark or goodwill you can prove under passing off. If their company name is the same as yours or likely to mislead, you can object at the Company Names Tribunal under section 69 of the Companies Act 2006, which has an official fee of £400.
Passing off protects a business name or brand that is not registered as a trade mark. To succeed you show three things: goodwill, meaning customers know the name and connect it with you; a misrepresentation by the other side that leads people to think their business is yours or connected to you; and damage, such as lost sales or harm to your reputation. Each has to be proved with evidence, so the claim is harder and more expensive than relying on a registration. The Trade Marks Act 1994 states that nothing in it affects the law of passing off.
Our part is priced as fixed fees agreed in writing before each step starts: reviewing the evidence and telling you which route fits, the first letter, and preparing a tribunal or Nominet complaint. Subscribers get 10% off. Official fees are on top and are set by the bodies concerned: £400 to start a Company Names Tribunal objection, and on Nominet’s schedule £750 for a full expert decision on a .uk domain. Court proceedings are a separate matter, handled and priced by AD Solicitors, and you are told the cost before anything is filed.
No. Without a registration you can rely on passing off in the courts, object at the Company Names Tribunal on the basis of your goodwill, bring a Nominet complaint on rights you can enforce, and oppose their trade mark application on an earlier unregistered right. What a registration changes is the proof: you show the certificate in place of proving your goodwill from scratch, and it covers the whole UK. If the name matters to your business, apply now, in the classes covering what you sell; the official fee is £205 for one class online.
For a .uk address, Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service applies. You show that you have rights in a name identical or similar to the domain, and that their registration is abusive: for example, bought to sell to you, to block you, to disrupt your business, or used so that people think it is yours. If they respond, there is free mediation first. If that fails, an independent expert decides, and can order the domain transferred to you. Domains ending in .com and other endings are dealt with under different rules.
Your business name, who is using it and where, and roughly when you started trading under it. You get back which route fits and a fixed price for the first step. See the privacy policy for how we use your details.
Your right checked, the evidence gathered and the first letter written, at a fixed price agreed in writing before work starts.
