When can a company “Trade As”?
I get so many questions about “Trading As” that I again feel that I have to explain what is actually a very simple concept.
Any company can “Trade as” as many different business names as it likes.
There is NO control over this, no regulations and no registrations. Yes, you can do what you like, despite what the Consumer Protection Act tried to instigate*.
Only two things you must bear in mind:
- Do not incorporate a wellknown brand, like “Woolworths” by trading as, for example, Woolworths Retailers. Their attorneys will demand that you withdraw the use of that name.
- Do not add (Pty) Ltd after your trading name.
*Back in 2008, s80 of the Act required that all business names be registered with CIPC. Schedule 2(5) stated that this would come into effect from a date to be determined by the Minister. CIPC then promptly stated that they did not have the capacity to register these names, and that was the end of that.
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Thanks for the clarity. This means as a registered company, I can use any trade name I wish to use.
How am I going to know that this name is not used elsewhere by another company?
Hi Mphishe,
Yes to your first question.
There’s no way that you can know whether the name is used elsewhere, except that another company may get their lawyer to ask you to stop using a name that they started using before you did.