UK Domain name worries

Company with same domain but different ext

[chrisandsarah]

Hi, I realise I'll probably need to speak to a solicitor on this, but if people say its a definite no-no, then I'll save the expense!

We have been trading under domainnamelocal.com for several years and now we want to expand to domainnamenational.com (which we've registered)

We now find out there is already a domainnamenational already in existance but it has the .co.uk extension, the name though is exactly the same and they are trading, although they are not registered as a limited company.

My question is, because the domain extensions will be different, (we are .com, them .co.uk) and we have the limited company, are we clear to trade under the same domain name? or do they have ground to cause trouble as their site has been around before our limited company?

Thanks for any info,

[HuskyPup]

Before any from the US jump in they had better know that UK company trading laws are different to a lot of countries and, basically, that it is entirely possible for two companies to trade under the same name so long as they are not ostensibly direct competitors and even then it may be allowed.

Don't shoot me, I didn't make the law!

If you're a member of the FSB use their free legal helpline and and ask for their opinion, if not you should be able to get the right legal information from your regional business support such as EMDA, EEDA etc, it depends where you live what it's called however your local council should know the answer.

FWIW and as an example of how free/lax this issue is, in my widget trade there are two companies one trades as keyword1keyword2.co.uk (a sole trader the orginal to use this) and the other as ukkeyword1keyword2.com (and they have the UK Ltd company name) and they seem to survive ok.

For your peace of mind contact one of the Quangos we all pay for, that's their job!