A widespread and expensive misunderstanding: incorporating a company under a name does not give you rights to that name as a brand. The Companies Office register and the trade marks register are different things administered for different purposes.
What company registration actually does
It stops another company registering an identical or almost identical name. That is all.
It does not prevent someone else using your name as a trading name, registering it as a trade mark, or operating a competing business under a very similar name. And it does not protect you if your name infringes an existing trade mark — the Companies Office does not check the trade marks register when it accepts your registration.
Businesses discover this when a letter arrives from a trade mark owner, usually after signage, packaging and a website have been paid for.
What a trade mark gives you
A registered trade mark gives an exclusive right to use the mark for the goods and services it is registered for, in New Zealand, and a clear basis to stop others.
Key features:
- It is class-based. Registration covers specified classes of goods and services. The same word can be registered by different owners in unrelated classes.
- It is territorial. A New Zealand registration protects you in New Zealand only. Australia, and any other market you sell into, needs separate protection.
- It must be distinctive. Descriptive terms are difficult to register. A name that plainly describes what you sell may be unregistrable, which is a reason to choose a distinctive name at the start.
- It must be used. Marks can be challenged for non-use after a period.
Search before you commit
Before printing anything, check:
- The trade marks register at IPONZ for identical and similar marks in your classes.
- The Companies Office register for similar company and trading names.
- Domain availability, and register the .nz and .co.nz variants.
- Social platform handles.
- A general web search for unregistered traders using the name, since they may have rights through use.
A search takes an afternoon. Rebranding after a conflict takes months and costs real money.
Rights without registration
New Zealand recognises rights arising from use. A business that has built a reputation under a name can act against someone else using it through passing off, and the Fair Trading Act prohibits misleading conduct including conduct that misleads as to source.
These are real but weaker than registration — you must prove reputation and confusion, which is expensive and uncertain. Registration shifts you from proving your case to pointing at a certificate.
What else is worth protecting
- Copyright arises automatically in original works — your website copy, photographs, drawings, software. No registration exists or is needed in New Zealand. What matters is ownership: work created by an employee in the course of employment generally belongs to the employer, but work by a contractor frequently belongs to the contractor unless the agreement says otherwise. Check your designer and developer contracts.
- Registered designs protect the appearance of a product and must be applied for before public disclosure.
- Patents protect inventions, require novelty, and are lost by prior public disclosure — including at a trade show or in a pitch.
- Confidential information and trade secrets, protected by keeping them confidential and by contract.
The disclosure trap
For patents and registered designs, public disclosure before filing can destroy the right. Founders regularly present at demo days, publish on social media or show prototypes to customers before filing, and lose protection they did not know they were forfeiting.
File first, or use confidentiality agreements. Order matters.
Practical sequence
Choose a distinctive name, search properly, secure domains and handles, then apply for trade mark registration in the classes that matter. Registration takes months, so start early. Where budget is limited, register the mark you actually trade under rather than every variation.
IPONZ publishes free search tools and guidance on trade marks, patents and designs, and its public material is Crown-licensed and freely reusable.
General information only, not legal advice.
