You & Your Business Name – A New National Register

A new National Business Name Register is expected to commence in May/June 2012.
Currently, for businesses operating in Queensland, the Office of Fair Trading keeps the state’s register with each other state or territory having a similar system.

Transition to the new national register All existing Queensland business names will be migrated over to the new national register, with the transition date being approximately 28 May 2012. This means that if you have a business name already registered with the Office of Fair Trading Queensland you do not have to do anything – your business name will be automatically migrated.

Duplicate Names In cases where the same business name also exists in a different state or territory, the new national business name register will carry a location identifier. That is, the business name itself will not change only the register will carry the location identifier and that business can continue to trade under the existing name.

If the same proprietor has registered the same business name in two or more jurisdictions, the new national business name register will merge the business names into a single registration.
Purpose of the new national register The main purpose of the new national register is to help consumers identify exactly who is operating the business they are dealing with.

The register is administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and consumers are able to conduct a free preliminary search through the website (visit www.asic.gov.au for further information).
Option to cross check with Trade Mark register An advantage of implementing the new national business name register is that the process of business registration is to become more streamline and conducted at the national level.

Additionally, the national business name register will be streamed via the trade mark register on their course to business name registration and the applicant will have the option to cross check their proposed business name with the trade mark register Application process It is proposed that, to fill out the application for registration of the business name there will be two questions required: –

1. a box to be ticked as an acknowledgement that the applicant is aware that a business name does not entitle the applicant to ownership of the name; and
2. the second acknowledges that the name being sought may inadvertently offend the rights of a trade mark owner and the applicant will be invited to check with this is the case or not.

The purpose of this is to help proprietors identify if they are offending or impinging on a registered trade mark and reduce the likelihood of unnecessary action being taken against innocent applicants. With the recent implementation of the new Personal Property Securities Register and now the national Business Name Register it seems that legislatures are attempting to unify and simplify the individual processes adopted for the states and territories.

Please do not hesitate to contact Macrossan & Amiet if you would like to register a business name or if you have any further questions in relation to the new national business name register.