National business names register |
On 28 May 2012, a new national business names registration system commenced.
The new national business names register consolidated the business names registers previously operated by state and territory governments into a single national register.
The new national register is operated by the Commonwealth Government´s Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
All data held or updated by the Office of Fair Trading is now held by ASIC.
ASIC advised it has loaded this data into the ASIC systems.
From now on, all correspondence you receive regarding your business name will be from ASIC.
Renewing your business name
You will receive your renewal notice from ASIC, including details of how to renew and the relevant fees.
If your business name is due for renewal between 28 May 2012 and 30 June 2012, you may receive your renewal notice from ASIC a bit later than you would normally expect it. The expected period for the issue of these notices is November 2012. If you do, you will get an extension of time in which to renew, so that you are not disadvantaged.
Duplicate names
If you have registered the same business name in multiple jurisdictions, all of your business names will have transitioned to the national business names register, meaning that you may have multiple identical business names registered to you.
You can choose to keep one of your business names and let the rest expire naturally by not renewing them when they fall due. If you prefer, you can speed up this process by cancelling any business name that you no longer require. There is no fee to cancel a business name.
If the same business name was registered by different businesses in different jurisdictions, all of the business names will still have been transitioned to the national business names register. An additional identifier (such as the word ´Queensland´) will appear on the register to assist in differentiating between identical business names.
This additional identifier does not form part of your business name, meaning that you can continue to trade using the business name you have always had.
More information
To learn more, visit ASIC's business names page.
Last reviewed 29/04/2013 |
 |
