Business name vs company name: what's the difference?

ASIC says a business name is the name your business operates under. ASIC's page on registering one says a business name has to be registered by anyone who runs a business in Australia and isn't trading under their own name. It doesn't have to be registered by:

• a sole trader using your first name and surname;
• a partnership using all the partners' personal names;
• a registered Australian company whose operating name is exactly the company's name.

You need an ABN, or an ABN reference number if you've applied for one, to register a business name through ASIC Connect, and the registration lasts 1 year or 3 years before it's renewed.

ASIC says a company is a separate legal entity registered with ASIC. Its rules for acceptable company names say the name must show the company's legal status: "Proprietary" or "Pty" for a proprietary company, and "Limited" or "Ltd" at the end if its members' liability is limited. A company can also be known only by its ACN.

ASIC won't register a company name that's identical to a company or business name someone has already registered or reserved.

ASIC's page on the ACN says an ACN is a unique 9-digit number that identifies a company, and ASIC issues one to every company when it's registered.

An ABN is different. ASIC says it's an 11-digit number that identifies any type of business, including sole traders and partnerships as well as companies, and the Australian Taxation Office issues it, not ASIC. Most companies have both, and ASIC says a company's ABN is often its ACN with 2 extra numbers at the start.

When it trades under a name that isn't its company name. ASIC says that if your company wants to operate a business under a name that's different to the company name, the company will need to register a business name.

So a company called Bluegum Holdings Pty Ltd (an invented name) that runs a bakery called Bluegum Bakery needs to register Bluegum Bakery as a business name. If it trades as Bluegum Holdings Pty Ltd, it doesn't.

Both registers are searched from the same place on ASIC's website. ASIC's company and organisation registers show a company's name and type, its ABN and ACN, its registration date and the suburb, state and postcode of its registered office, free. ASIC's business names register shows each business name's holder, which could be a person or an organisation, with the ABN of the business, the date it was registered, its next renewal date and whether the registration is current.

So the invented Bluegum Holdings Pty Ltd above appears twice: once on the companies register under its company name and ACN, and once on the business names register as the holder of Bluegum Bakery. Our guide on searching business and company names covers both registers, and the one on checking whether a business name is available covers ASIC's availability check.

The Australian Government's business.gov.au says a trading name is an unregistered name that businesses could use before the national business names register started on 28 May 2012. ASIC says trading names aren't registered business names and don't appear on the business names register.

Neither a business name nor a company name gives exclusive rights to the name. business.gov.au says registering a business name doesn't give you exclusive rights to it, and that a trade mark is the way to get them. ASIC says only a trade mark can give you exclusive rights to use your trade mark.

Trade marks are registered with IP Australia, on a register ASIC doesn't check. Our guide on business names and trade marks goes through what each one does.