Ireland · Forming the company and its constitution
Company names, name reservation, change of name and misleading trading names
the Companies Act 2014 · sections 26, 27, 29, 30 and 32
Where the problem is
A name that clears the initial check can still be taken away. If a company is registered by a name that is the same as, or too like, a name already on the register, section 30 lets the Registrar intervene. The company may change its name with the approval of the Registrar, or the Registrar may direct a change if the direction is given within six months after the date on which the offending name was registered (section 30(3)).
A direction under section 30(3)(b) is not open ended. It must be complied with within six weeks after the date on which it is given, or within such longer period as the Registrar thinks fit to allow (section 30(4)). Companies lose that window because the direction arrives at the registered office and is treated as correspondence rather than as a deadline.
What the Companies Act 2014 requires
Sections 26, 27 and 29 govern the name a company may be registered by, the reservation of a name in advance and the procedure for changing a name once registered. Section 30 carries the same-name and too-like-a-name control described above, together with the Registrar's power to direct. Section 32 deals with a name used in trade that is misleading as to the company that stands behind it.
The practical point is that name compliance runs on two tracks at once. The registered corporate name is controlled by the Act and by the Registrar, and any other name the company trades under is controlled separately, both by section 32 and by the law on the registration of business names. A company that trades under a name other than its corporate name is not excused from either track.
The tool that solves it
File 3 of the IE-COMPANY package covers this situation on its own. It asks what name the company is registered by, whether a reservation was used, whether any direction has been received from the Registrar and when, what other names the company trades under, and where the evidence of each of those answers is held. The output records the position against sections 26, 27, 29, 30 and 32 and marks each duty COMPLIANT, PARTIAL, GAP or NOT APPLICABLE.
This situation is covered by these files from the pack IE-COMPANY
- File 3 · Company names, name reservation, change of name and misleading trading names
Files for this situation
Free · this situation only
The working files named above cover this situation. You take them from your free ComplianceSME account when this situation arises, and you come back to the site for the next situation.
You take the starter pack first: PRINT_ME_FIRST.pdf, the training file T_TRAIN, the four volumes of the reference file T_HELP, and File 1, which builds the ENTITY_PASSPORT.md that the other files require. The situations open in your account once you have taken the starter pack.
Take the files for this situationThe free system
Free · with a free account
The ComplianceSME system for the Companies Act 2014 is free. It needs a free ComplianceSME account and runs inside your own Claude account. It holds 215 working files, the training file, the reference file in four volumes, the regulation analysis, the final review with the gap analysis, and the report assembly. You take the starter pack first, and after that the files for one situation at a time, as each situation arises.
The starter pack holds PRINT_ME_FIRST.pdf, the training file T_TRAIN, the four volumes of the reference file T_HELP, and File 1, which builds the ENTITY_PASSPORT.md that every other working file requires. Print PRINT_ME_FIRST.pdf and read it before any other file.
The system runs in your own Claude account. Upload the files, type START, and the system asks you one question at a time until it has built your documentation, citing the section at every point.
Take the starter packComplianceSME tracks the Companies Act 2014 and issues update files through the membership, so that you are never working from a superseded version. Membership