text: Registering Name (Page 1) / Self employment forum / Driver Training Today | Driving Instructor and Learner Forum
  Today 00:44:36 | Users Online |
  » Registering Name
  #1 26-03-06 18:24:02
  JustLightning
  From: Sanderstead, Surrey
  Registered: 16-05-05
  Registering Name
  Should I register the name of my driving school to prevent anyone else using it? And if so, where?
  www.lightninglearners.co.uk
  26-03-06 18:24:02
  Re: Registering Name
  #2 26-03-06 19:43:52
  The only place you can register a name of a company is at companies house and this is normally for limited companies not one man bands see http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/. If you are looking to see if anyone has already got the name you are considering you could search the internet and also your local yellow pages and thompson directory. If you cant find it in any of those I would go ahead and use it.
  #3 27-03-06 22:18:02
  Registered: 18-06-05
  Good advice there from AlphaBob.
  Thinking of a name is very difficult. I came up with a few but unfortunately I found that they were already in use. I found them either listed in Yellow Pages / Thompsons or on the web.
  I also created a logo to go with my name so that helps to individualise your name (Is that a word or have I just invented it ?)
  #4 27-03-06 22:20:49
  I also phoned DSA to see if the name was in use as they have school names listed. They were actually v. helpful, although I'm not going to be v. helpful as I can't remember what department I phoned.
  At the end of the day, it's in no ones interest to use a name that is already in use in the same area, although you mind find that the name is being use in a different part of the country, but that shouldn't be a problem really.
  #5 15-04-06 13:36:40
  Panjandrumbuilder
  As I recall, the Registration of Business Names Act was repealed in the 1970's, so, as a sole trader, there is nowhere for you to register your name. Really valuable business names tend to be protected under international trademark and copyright laws. As such, try not to infringe other people's trading names e.g., don't set up as AA Driving School.
  One good way of getting some protection for your chosen business name is to buy a web address from a domain names registration agent. This will cost you about £8.00 for 2 years. Be careful though. Make sure that you choose a .co.uk name. Don't go for .com or any of the others on offer. The reason is that .com and other URL suffixes are now being considered by the likes of Google to be prime spammer sites and as such, are being written-out of the search engine relevance algorithms. There are lots of domain names registration agents out there. The one I use is fasthosts.co.uk and I am happy to recommend them. Don't forget, unless you are intending to set up a web site in the near future it's just the domain names registration service you want, not the hosting service. By the way, anybody interested in buying a spare domain name of mine, it's called www.tornels.co.uk yes, as in torn L's. Make me an offer.
  TTFN p.s., this is just a spare domain name, I'm not in the domain names or web hosting business.
  #6 15-04-06 13:44:00
  p.p.s., forgot to mention that the 'tornels' URL as mentioned above is currently pointing to my web site www.wannadrive.co.uk sorry if you clicked on the URL and wondered why the page says 'WeLcome to Wannadrive.
  #7 15-04-06 14:06:22
  Panjandrumbuilder, I must pull you up on something there, i think you must have read some duff information at some point...
  One good way of getting some protection for your chosen business name is to buy a web address from a domain names registration agent. This will cost you about £8.00 for 2 years. Be careful though. Make sure that you choose a .co.uk name. Don't go for .com or any of the others on offer. The reason is that .com and other URL suffixes are now being considered by the likes of Google to be prime spammer sites and as such, are being written-out of the search engine relevance algorithms.
  That is not the case... .co.uk / .org.uk and .me.uk are UK domian extesions. .com is a US commercial extension and is not considered as a sign of a SPAMMY web site, nor is it being written out of search engine algorithms. In fact, no domain extension is being written out of search engines. If it were, alsmost every commercial US website would be in trouble.
  Having a .co.uk domain will however increase you chances of being found on UK specific searches on Google.
  #8 15-04-06 14:43:09
  Hi Jonks,
  Got an email on this subject yesterday from the CEO of Fasthosts. You are quite right to say that .com sites are indeed prevalent commercial URL suffixes in the USA. The gist of the email was that people who register .com domains for just one year are in many many cases spammers and as such, are causing the likes of Google to downgrade sites in their rankings if they are not registered long term, i.e., 10 year registrations.
  My advice in this regard was to keep people away from choosing a .com name which they might otherwise choose for some reason, as .co.uk is not affected by this Google decision. I should point out that I too have owned a .com and a .tv site in my time. It was not necessary to be US based to own either of these
  #9 15-04-06 15:07:15
  There is no way, short of performing whois queries for every .com domain, that google could possibly know how long a domain has been registered for though. Google has what is known as the "sandbox" which is where it places new websites until they have been checked and monitored by Google software. During time in the sandbox, websites do not perform well on google. All new websites go in the sandbox regardless of their domain extension. Sounds to me like fast hosts are trying to get people to buy domains for a 10 year period by spinning them a line. I can tell you for cirtain that what they have told you is untrue. .co.uk is just as open to abuse as .com is, so if Google were to do something like that, the spammers would just buy new domain names.
  #10 15-04-06 15:25:29
  It did occur to me that Fasthosts might be doing a little cashflow enhancement, which is why I advised people to go for a .co.uk domain. In the context of the thread, I believed and still do believe that this was good advice, particularly, as many people who first visit domain names registration agents are not necessarily web-wise, and the difference in price as between .co.uk names and others can be considerable, particularly if agents are recommending 10 year registrations.
  As to any possible situation with Google and short term .com registrations, we'll have to see what, if anything, transpires.
  #11 15-04-06 15:30:12
  Oh yes, .co.uk domains are as good as any other and perhaps a good choice for a driving school based in the UK. 1and1.co.uk is my favourite place to buy .co.uk domains. £4.68 for a two year registration and really simple to use control panel.