Can two businesses have the same name in Australia? Not as registered names. ASIC won’t register a business name that’s identical or nearly identical to one already on the national register, so two different businesses can’t both hold the same registered name. But registration isn’t ownership, and plenty of businesses end up trading under names close enough to land them in a dispute.
Here’s how it usually goes. You find a name you love, ASIC says it’s available, and you buy the domain and order the signage. Then a competitor with a near-identical name and a registered trade mark sends you a letter. Most founders learn the difference between “available” and “protected” at that exact moment. You can learn it now, for free.
- ASIC blocks identical names, nationally. A registered business name can only be held by one entity at a time, and the check covers every state and territory.
- “Identical” is broader than you’d think. ASIC ignores plurals, “the”, word order, punctuation and sound-alike spellings. “Hare of the Dog” clashes with “Hair of the Dog”.
- A registered business name gives you no exclusive rights. It lets you trade under the name. Only a registered trade mark lets you stop others using a similar name for similar goods or services.
- Same name, different industries can coexist. Trade marks are registered by class, and the legal test is whether customers are likely to be confused.
- One owner can run several businesses under one name. The name belongs to the entity that holds it. A new entity can’t share it without a transfer or licence.
Can two businesses have the same registered name in Australia?
No. Since 28 May 2012, ASIC has run a single national register under the Business Names Registration Act 2011 (Cth). Every business name is registered to one holder, identified by its ABN. If your name (or something ASIC treats as the same) is already on the register, your application gets refused.
The check covers company names too. You can’t register “Harbour Light Studio” as a business name if Harbour Light Studio Pty Ltd already exists, because ASIC ignores “Pty Ltd” when it compares the two.
What ASIC counts as “identical or nearly identical”
This is where people get caught. ASIC’s comparison is much stricter than a spell-check. Here’s how its rules for acceptable business names treat the tweaks founders try most:
| The tweak | Example | How ASIC treats it |
|---|---|---|
| Adding or dropping “the” or “a” | The Bird in Hand vs Bird in Hand | Identical |
| Singular vs plural | The Child Garden vs The Children Gardens | Identical |
| Swapping the word order | Green House vs House Green | Identical (against other business names) |
| Changing punctuation, spaces or capitals | Australian Holiday Apartments! vs australiaholidayapartments | Identical |
| Adding www or .com.au | www.myfirstbusiness.com.au vs My First Business | Identical |
| A sound-alike spelling | Colour Inn vs Color In | Identical |
| Swapping in a listed equivalent word | Fresh Bread Bakehouse vs Fresh Bread Bakery | Identical |
Two more rules surprise people. A name cancelled in the last 4 or 6 months stays off-limits, depending on whether the holder or ASIC cancelled it. And “trading as” is a restricted expression, so you can’t build it into the name itself.
Adding a genuinely different word will usually get you past ASIC’s check. Getting past ASIC and being safe to use are two separate tests, though. More on that below.
So why do I keep seeing businesses with the same name?
Because “can’t register it twice” isn’t the same as “nobody uses it twice”. The usual explanations:
- Older state registrations. Before the national register, each state kept its own. Unrelated owners could hold the same name in NSW and Victoria, and some of those older registrations carried over.
- Personal names don’t need registering. Two plumbers both called Sam Nguyen can each trade as Sam Nguyen without registering a thing.
- One owner, two registers. A company can hold a business name that matches its own company name. That’s one owner showing up twice.
- Similar, not identical. Coastal Coffee Co and Coast Coffee Roasters might both pass ASIC’s check. Whether both can safely trade is a trade mark question.
- People trading without registering. It’s an offence to trade under an unregistered name that isn’t your own. It still happens, and that trader’s reputation can still count in a dispute.
Does registering a business name stop other businesses using it?
No. It’s the most common misunderstanding our lawyers hear. A registered business name lets you trade under that name and tells the public who’s behind it. That’s it. It gives you no exclusive rights, and ASIC won’t step in if someone registers a similar name next week.
Three things actually protect a name in Australia:
| Protection | What it gets you | Cost and timing | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered business name (ASIC) | The right to trade under the name. Blocks identical registrations only. | $47 for 1 year or $108 for 3 years (2026–27 fees). Usually same day. | Australia-wide, every industry |
| Registered trade mark (IP Australia) | Exclusive use of the name for the goods and services you register. Lets you stop confusingly similar names. | From $250 per class. At least 7 months to register. | Australia-wide, in your chosen classes |
| Reputation you’ve built (unregistered) | Grounds to act for misleading conduct or passing off if someone rides on your name. | Nothing upfront. Expensive to prove when it counts. | Only where your reputation genuinely exists |
The unregistered route relies on section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law, which sits in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and bans misleading or deceptive conduct. It works. But you’ll need evidence that customers were confused and that your reputation was real. A registered trade mark does most of that heavy lifting for you.
Can two businesses have the same name in different industries?
Often, yes. Trade marks are registered across 45 classes of goods and services. A café called Juniper and a bookkeeping firm called Juniper can live side by side, because nobody’s going to think they’re connected.
Where this goes wrong is industries that feel different but aren’t. Our lawyers regularly see hardware founders whose name matches an established software brand, or food brands that share a name with a clothing label. Different products, different buyers. IP Australia can still treat the goods as closely related, and that’s enough to sink an application or trigger an objection.
Think about where you’re heading, too. If you sell hot sauce today but plan to launch merch next year, someone else’s clothing trade mark is next year’s problem.
What we see in Lawpath consultations about business name clashes
Name clashes come up week in, week out in our legal consultations. These five patterns account for most of them.
The ASIC tick gets mistaken for ownership
Most people who call us about a copycat assume their business name registration lets them make the other side stop. It doesn’t. Without a trade mark, a demand letter has far less bite. Even a pending application only gives you enforceable rights once it’s registered, and examination alone takes months. So file early, before you need it.
Renaming a company can hand your old name to a stranger
This one stings. A founder changes the company’s name, forgets to register the old brand as a business name, and the old company name becomes available. Someone else registers it. Customers still know the business by that name, and now a stranger holds it.
The fix takes five minutes. If you rename a company, register the old trading name as a business name the same day.
A hyphen won’t save you
Bright-Path instead of Brightpath. Kleen instead of Clean. Founders try small tweaks to get around a conflict all the time. ASIC ignores punctuation and considers pronunciation, and trade mark examiners look at the overall impression. If two names look and sound alike in the same market, a tweak fixes nothing.
It’s usually your trading name at risk, not your company name
When a trade mark clash turns up, founders panic about renaming the Pty Ltd. In practice, trade mark disputes turn on the name you use with customers. Our lawyers often advise keeping the company name and changing the trading name instead. It’s cheaper, faster and doesn’t touch your ABN, bank accounts or contracts.
Shortening your name creates a new name
Dropping “Pty Ltd” from your company name counts as trading under a different name. So does going by initials, or using one word from a longer registered name. Each of those needs its own business name registration. The short version might also clash with someone else’s registration or trade mark, even when your full name doesn’t.
One more thing we’d tell every founder. The cheapest moment to fix a naming problem is before launch. No signage to reprint, no customers to confuse, no reputation to rebuild. Founders who rebrand pre-launch almost never regret it.
What should you do if another business already has your name?
Start by working out what rights the other business actually holds. Your options depend on it.
- They have a registered trade mark in your area. Change your name. Fighting a registered mark in the same class rarely ends well, and a rebrand now costs far less than a rebrand after a demand letter.
- They only have a registered business name. You can’t register the identical name. A clearly different name in a different industry might work, but check the trade mark register before you commit.
- They have no registration but a real reputation. Tread carefully. They can still act for misleading conduct or passing off if customers get confused.
- The name looks abandoned. Check whether the registration has lapsed. Even then, ASIC holds cancelled names for 4 or 6 months before anyone else can register them.
If the situation is messy (say, you’ve both traded for years), get a business lawyer to look at it before you send anything. The first letter sets the tone for everything after it.
Can you buy or take over someone else’s business name?
Yes, if they cooperate. The current holder starts an ASIC transfer and gets a transfer number. You then register the name to your ABN using that number, which stays valid for 4 months and 28 days. Put a short written agreement around it covering price and goodwill, and check whether they hold a trade mark that also needs assigning.
What if you hold the earlier rights, through a trade mark or years of trading under the name? Then a formal cease and desist letter for trade mark infringement is usually the first move. It’s cheap. Plenty of disputes end right there.
How do you check if a business name is available?
Do these in order. The first three take about half an hour, and it’s the best half hour you’ll spend on your brand.
- Search ASIC’s business name and company registers. Remember that plurals, word order and sound-alikes all count as matches.
- Search IP Australia’s trade mark register. Check the classes you’ll trade in now and the ones you might grow into. Our guide to the Australian Trade Mark Search walks you through it.
- Google the name, then check domains and social handles. Unregistered businesses with a real following still have rights.
- Test it with TM Headstart if you’re unsure. IP Australia gives you an early view on whether your trade mark is likely to be accepted, for $200 per class, before you commit to a full application.
- Register the business name. Register your business name against the ABN of the entity that will actually trade. ASIC charges $47 for 1 year or $108 for 3 years.
- File the trade mark. From $250 per class, and it takes at least 7 months to register. Your filing date is what counts, so don’t wait for the business to “take off” first.
Start your ABN application in minutes!
Can you run different businesses under the same business name?
Yes, as long as the same entity runs them. A business name belongs to its holder (the sole trader, partnership, company or trustee whose ABN it’s registered to), not to a particular activity. That holder can use the name across as many lines of business as it likes. What it can’t do is share the name with a different entity.
| If you’re a… | Can your second business use the same name? | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Sole trader | Yes, if you run it as the same sole trader | One ABN, and you’re personally liable for both businesses |
| Partnership | Yes, if the same partnership runs it | A partner going solo needs a new name or a transfer |
| Company | Yes, under its existing name or extra business names | One company means one pool of assets exposed to claims |
| Trust | Yes, through the trustee | The trustee is the registered holder, not the trust itself |
| New entity (new company or partnership) | No, not without a transfer or licence | A business name can’t be registered to two entities at once |
How it plays out in practice
John mows lawns as a sole trader under “John’s Lawns”. He starts making and selling fertiliser as the same sole trader, so he can use “John’s Lawns” for both. If he starts the fertiliser business in partnership with Sam instead, the partnership can’t use the name unless John transfers it (and then his lawn-mowing business loses it).
Roya and Ludvic run “Roya’s Stationery” as a partnership. Roya wants to launch a fountain pen line on her own as a sole trader. She can’t use “Roya’s Stationery”, because the partnership holds it. If the partnership launches the pens instead, it can use the existing name or register “Roya’s Fountain Pens” alongside it.
Danesh Hospitality Pty Ltd trades as “Danesh’s Bakery”. It can open a coffee roastery under the same name, or register “Danesh’s Roasters” as a second business name. Either way, both businesses run through the same company and ABN.
The trade-off nobody mentions: shared liability
One entity is simple. It’s also one pool of assets. If a customer sues Danesh’s Bakery, the company’s assets are exposed, roastery equipment and cash included. Separate business names don’t create separate buckets.
That’s why growing businesses often split into separate companies under a holding company. The brand can sit with the holding company and be licensed to each operating company under a trade mark licensing agreement. We cover the structuring side in running multiple businesses under one company, and the ABN side in registering two business names under one ABN.
Moving from sole trader to company? Transfer the name
A new company gets its own ABN, so your business name doesn’t follow you over automatically. You start an ASIC transfer from your sole trader ABN, then register the name to the company using the transfer number.
Don’t skip it. We regularly see founders who incorporate, hire staff and sign contracts through the new company while the brand still sits on their old sole trader ABN. When a dispute lands, nobody’s sure which entity is the real party. Licences and approvals in regulated industries often don’t transfer at all, so check with your regulator before you switch.
Frequently asked questions
Can two businesses have the same name in different states?
Not as newly registered names. ASIC has run one national register since 28 May 2012, so availability is checked across Australia. Some duplicates from the old state registers still exist, but you can’t create a new one.
Can two companies have the same name in Australia?
No. ASIC won’t register a company name that’s identical to an existing company or business name, and it ignores terms like “Pty Ltd” when comparing. The main exception is where the person registering the company already holds the matching business name.
Can a sole trader and a company have the same name?
Only when they’re connected. A company name can match a business name if whoever registers the company already holds that business name. An unrelated company can’t take a sole trader’s registered name.
Can I use a name that’s registered by another business but not trade marked?
You can’t register the identical name, and using it anyway is risky. The other business can still act for misleading conduct or passing off if customers get confused. Pick a clearly different name instead.
What happens if my business name registration lapses?
ASIC cancels it, then holds the name for 4 or 6 months before anyone else can register it. After that it’s fair game. Renew on time, and if you’ve built a reputation under the name, get legal advice quickly.
Does owning the domain name protect my business name?
No. A domain or social handle gives you no legal rights to the name. You still need a registered business name to trade under it, and only a registered trade mark gives you exclusive rights.
Can I use the same name as a business overseas?
Sometimes. ASIC’s register and Australian trade marks only cover Australia. But if the overseas brand holds an Australian trade mark or has a reputation here, using its name could still land you in trouble.
Can I run two businesses under one business name?
Yes, if the same entity runs both, whether that’s a sole trader, partnership, company or trustee. A different entity can’t share the name without a formal transfer or licence.
How long does it take to trade mark a business name?
At least 7 months if nobody objects. A TM Headstart request gets you IP Australia’s early view on registrability first, from $200 per class. Your rights date back to your filing date, so earlier is better.
Protect your name before someone else does
If you’ve just realised your registered name isn’t actually protected, you’re not behind. Most business owners are in exactly the same spot, and fixing it takes one application, not a legal battle.
Lawpath has helped 650,000+ Australian businesses get set up properly. We’ll search the register and file in the right classes for you, so you can get back to the good stuff. Start your trade mark application today.
