First, Check Which Status You Actually Have

There are two outcomes and they are not the same. If your application is marked “Resubmission Required”, you have a limited window, 15 days from the date of marking, to correct and refile, and you get one such opportunity. If it has been rejected outright, or your single resubmission has already been used, you file a fresh application with new names. Read the remark the CRC has left before doing anything, because it tells you which problem you have and therefore which of those two paths applies.

Step 1: Read the objection

The CRC records a reason. It is usually short and it is usually specific. The common ones are:

• Resemblance to an existing company or LLP name

• Conflict with a registered or applied-for trademark

• A restricted word without the required clearance

• A name considered undesirable or misleading

• A name inconsistent with the business activity or objects stated

• Insufficient explanation of the name’s significance

Each has a different fix, and some have no fix at all for that particular name.

Step 2: Decide between fixing and replacing

Fix the same name if the objection is about how you presented it: the significance was not explained, the activity classification did not match, a clearance existed but was not attached, or you have since obtained the trademark owner’s no objection.

Replace the name if the objection is about the name itself: it resembles something already on the register, or it belongs to someone else as a trademark and consent is not available. A resemblance objection is rarely argued away. Arguing it costs you your single resubmission and usually ends in the same place.

This is the decision the whole page turns on. Founders who are attached to a name spend their resubmission defending it, lose, and then start over having spent two weeks.

Step 3: Act inside the window

If the status is “Resubmission Required”, the window is 15 days from the date the application was marked. Miss it and the application is gone, along with the fee.

You get one resubmission. If the refiled application is also refused, a fresh application is required.

Step 4: If you are starting again

Screen properly this time:

  1. Search the distinctive word, not the full name, on the MCA company and LLP register

  1. Search the trademark register in the classes relevant to your activity

  1. Confirm no restricted word is present without its clearance

  1. Prepare three ranked names, not one

Then file, with two names where the route allows it.

What this costs you

The money is small. The time is not. Each cycle is a few days of processing plus however long you take to decide, and incorporation cannot proceed until the name is settled. Founders with a bank account to open, a client to onboard or an investor waiting feel this acutely.

If the name is not essential to the business, take the hint quickly and move to your second choice.

When the name genuinely matters

If the name is your established brand and someone else holds the mark, that is not a filing problem, it is a commercial one. Options include seeking a no objection from the proprietor, which is a negotiation, or adjusting the legal name while trading under a brand name. A company’s registered name and its trading brand do not have to be identical.

How Northrop LLP helps

Northrop LLP reads the objection, tells you honestly whether the name is recoverable, drafts the resubmission where it is, and files properly screened alternatives where it is not.