Forum - Business Registration Help

Business Registration Help

Mon, 05/12/2011 - 16:22 — sygbu

Hi

I want to start my own creative careers website and have already bought the domain names, a .co.uk and .org.uk versions.

The website will initially be an information based website, but eventually i would like to offer advertising space and offer a serivce whereby education providers pay to list their courses.

My main issues are as follows:

1. The name i have chosen is My Creative Future.  However, there is a similar website called Your Creative Future, which provides similar creative careers info that I want to expand on.  This website is owned/maintained by the Design Council.  Would this be a major issue legally for me, in terms of the type of website/business name i want to use and the type of website I want to pursue?

2. The name is available - i did the online search on Companies House, but do I have to name my business the same as my domain name?  I am worried that this may be an issue, in particular with the website above?  I also plan on expanding the careers info websites, and have other websites focusing on different careers so was hoping to call the business something else.  Is this allowed?

3. Although I want to eventually offer advertising space, etc on my website, it is not something that I will be doing staright away - I want to build up the traffic before approaching potential clients.  Therefore, can I wait to register the business name, until i actually take that path, or is it best to do this at the beginning, even before I begin to start charging for advertising?

My main concern is point 1 as i really don't want to change the name of my website, but i don't want to be sued or anything for having a similar name and offering a similar type of website.  Any help, advice, etc will be greatly appreciated because at the moment it is hindering me starting the website, using the name I have chosen.

Thanks