Domain name in ltd company name?

[pugdomains]

Hi,

Does anybody know whether you can have a domain name as a business name?

E.g. www.example.com ltd

Without any spaces between the dots?

Is that permitted, any downside that people can think of?

Thanks in advance

 

[gimpydog]

Like these?

Not sure what you mean by

Without any spaces between the dots?

Edit: All of the examples in the link I posted include a space somewhere in their name, so I guess a company name cannot take the same form as a domain name, even if the characters are the same.

more at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...50/GP1_Incorporation_names_v5_4-ver0.29-4.pdf (chapter 6 / page 16)

 

[ian]

Yes you can, many examples of such on companies house. Not sure it has any meaningful benefit or drawbacks, apart from restricting you to business through a single route I guess.

 

[pugdomains]

Yes you can, many examples of such on companies house. Not sure it has any meaningful benefit or drawbacks, apart from restricting you to business through a single route I guess.

The benefit for the business that I have planned, an ecommerce business with the product type in the domain, is potentially having your website address as your business name + marketplace shop name + username + logo on marketplaces like ebay & amazon.

E.g. my logo could literally be my domain name, e.g. www. widgetsdirect .com, I see that as a pretty massive advantage.

They are pretty strict about advertising your website, the only place I've been able to do it with my current little venture is in the email address in business information, which barely anybody will notice. E.g. [email protected]

But they do stipulate that exceptions are made if a domain name is basically your trading name, and I've seen some outlets do it, just wanted confirmation that from the perspective of companies house it is permitted to use a full domain name as your company name.

The Sports Direct logo on ebay, for example, states SportsDirect.com

Just seen that their business information shows their company name as:

SportsDirect.com Retail Ltd

So admittedly I didn't need to start this thread, could have gone and answered the question myself, but I'm currently in the process of purchasing a domain on sedo for this purpose and suddenly wondered whether my plan was flawed.

 

[pugdomains]

Like these?

Not sure what you mean by

Edit: All of the examples in the link I posted include a space somewhere in their name, so I guess a company name cannot take the same form as a domain name, even if the characters are the same.

more at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...50/GP1_Incorporation_names_v5_4-ver0.29-4.pdf (chapter 6 / page 16)

That's exactly what I mean....

I seem to see a lot of businesses with domains as names but with spaces in between.

But Sports Direct seem to have registered as:

SPORTSDIRECT.COM RETAIL LIMITED

No space, according to duedil at least.

Just wondered whether there was a reason why so many were using a space.

Presumably you wouldn't want to include the www incase tonnes of clickable backlinks are automatically created on those company information sites like endole and duedil.

 

[bensd]

You used to be able to have the exact domain but they changed the rules a few years ago.

Lots of companies (inc a few from this forum ;-)) had already registered the names before the rule change.

 

[pugdomains]

You used to be able to have the exact domain but they changed the rules a few years ago.

Lots of companies (inc a few from this forum ;-)) had already registered the names before the rule change.

So I wouldn't now be able to register the company WidgetsDirect.co.uk Ltd ?

I'd have to register Widgets Direct .co.uk Ltd?

 

[gimpydog]

Presumably you wouldn't want to include the www incase tonnes of clickable backlinks are automatically created on those company information sites like endole and duedil.

That's why I'm not so sure it's allowed.

Imagine if every company incorporated as a full qualified domain, such as "http://www.example.com Ltd"

Every time you were indexed online, you would get a free link. Every spammer from here to Mumbai would be at it :lol:

 

[gimpydog]

You used to be able to have the exact domain but they changed the rules a few years ago.

Lots of companies (inc a few from this forum ;-)) had already registered the names before the rule change.

Are you getting mixed up with .ltd.uk rules?

 

[bensd]

So I wouldn't now be able to register the company WidgetsDirect.co.uk Ltd ?

I'd have to register Widgets Direct .co.uk Ltd?

I don't even think you can do that any more.

Read this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/incorporation-and-names

I have seen companies get around this by using WidgetsDirectCoUk Ltd

 

[pugdomains]

I don't even think you can do that any more.

Read this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/incorporation-and-names

I have seen companies get around this by using WidgetsDirectCoUk Ltd

Just did a search within that document for "domain" and no results?

 

[pugdomains]

That's why I'm not so sure it's allowed.

Imagine if every company incorporated as a full qualified domain, such as "http://www.example.com Ltd"

Every time you were indexed online, you would get a free link. Every spammer from here to Mumbai would be at it :lol:

Those free links would be a bad thing these days, would get a penalty for the thousands of low quality links.

Presumably omitting the www wouldn't cause that issue though.

 

[gimpydog]

Yeah, who knows?

Why not ask them & put us all out of our misery?? :lol:

Edit: I wonder if you could get away with using one of the new gtlds? They might not even realise that example.domains Ltd was a domain name.

 

[pugdomains]

Yeah I'll ask companies house and update this thread.

Upgrading some forum software at the moment so I'll do it in a few days!

 

[bensd]

It's on page 18

Just did a search within that document for "domain" and no results?

 

[Skinner]

When I looked into this with companies house

widgets.co.uk
widgets.com
widgets
widgets uk

etc were all treated the same. This hasn't always been the case, but it is now.

 

[BeachLife]

The domain extension is now disregarded when checking the "same as" rules. So you could not register Project.co.uk Ltd if there is already a Project Ltd. Same applies to .co, .co uk, .co.uk, .com, .eu, .net, .org, .org uk, .org.uk, .uk, .wales, .cymru. They also disregard www. at the beginning.