Someone incorporated a company using my name
There is a UK procedure for this that costs £400, needs no solicitor, and that most people affected by it have never heard of. It is not a trademark action and it is not a court case. It is the Company Names Tribunal, and its single remedy is an order that the other company change its name.
Section 69 of the Companies Act 2006 lets you object to a company or LLP name registered at Companies House on the basis that it is the same as a name in which you have goodwill or reputation, or sufficiently similar that its use in the UK would be likely to mislead by suggesting a connection between that company and you. You apply on form CNA1 with the £400 official fee, and the matter is decided by a company names adjudicator.
What you have to show
The application asks you, in substance, for four things:
- The name associated with you that prompted the application.
- Your goodwill or reputation in that name, and the field of business it exists in. This is the load-bearing part — a name you registered but never traded under gives you very little.
- Why you object to the registered name.
- Whether you warned them before starting proceedings.
The statements are made subject to a declaration that the facts are true, so the evidence of trading — dates, invoices, marketing, accounts — is worth assembling properly rather than asserting.
What they can say back
Section 69(4) gives the respondent defences, and the practical one is that they are operating a legitimate business under the name. A company genuinely trading under a name it chose for its own reasons is in a very different position from a shelf company registered to block you or to extract a payment. There are further defences covering names adopted in good faith and names where the interests of the applicant are not adversely affected.
This is the honest filter: the tribunal is built for opportunistic registrations, not for two real businesses that landed on similar names. If the other side is actually trading, expect a fight and take advice first.
What the adjudicator can and cannot do
| Can | Cannot |
|---|---|
| Order the respondent company to change its name to one that is not an offending name | Award you damages |
| Award costs between the parties in accordance with its scale | Transfer the name, or the company, to you |
| Determine a new name itself where the order is not complied with | Stop them trading under the name as a brand — that is trademark or passing off territory |
An order to change a registered company name does not stop anyone using that name as a trading name, on a shopfront, or on a website. Those are separate rights enforced separately. If your real complaint is that someone is trading under your brand, the tribunal addresses the registry entry and leaves the actual problem where it was. It is a cheap and effective tool for the specific job it does, and no substitute for the other one.
One practical limit as well: if the company is struck off, the order becomes impossible to comply with and the procedure runs out of road.
Write to them first
The application asks whether you warned the company before starting. A short, factual letter — who you are, since when, what name you use, what you want them to do, by when — costs nothing and does three useful things. It sometimes resolves the matter outright, because a great many of these registrations are careless rather than calculated. It creates a dated record. And it is the question the form asks you.
Keep it factual. Threatening proceedings you have no intention of bringing is its own problem, and in intellectual-property matters unjustified threats can be actionable in their own right.
Questions
I have a registered trademark. Is that enough?
It is useful evidence but it is not the test. Section 69 asks about goodwill or reputation in a name, which is about trading, not about the register. A registration held without use gives you less here than a long trading history with no registration — which is the reverse of how most people expect it to work. If you have both, use both.
They registered the company before I started trading.
Then the goodwill you need to show probably did not exist when they registered, and this is likely the wrong procedure. The tribunal is aimed at people taking advantage of a reputation that already existed.
Does this work outside the UK?
No. This is a UK statutory procedure for names on the UK register. Other jurisdictions have their own arrangements, and many have nothing equivalent at all — in a great many countries the only route against a company name is an ordinary court action. Do not assume the option exists where you are.
How long does it take, and do I need a solicitor?
Representation is not required and plenty of applications are made without it. Uncontested matters are considerably quicker than contested ones, which move through evidence rounds and can run to many months. The £400 is the official fee; if the other side defends and you decide you need help, that is where the real cost appears.
Related
- UK company names: words that need approvalThe other half of the UK naming system
- Someone registered my domainA different registry, a different test, a different remedy
Reviewed 2026-09-20 against the Companies Act 2006 and the tribunal's published practice direction and forms. The £400 fee is the figure on the current CNA1 — confirm it before filing. General guidance, not legal advice.