ROC approved your company name? Your brand still isn’t protected
Name approval and trademark registration solve two very different problems.
Written and reviewed by CS Prashant Kumar · Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026
Getting a name approved through SPICe+ feels like a win. But name availability under the Companies Act, 2013 only checks whether your name is too similar to an existing company or LLP name. It does not give you any right to stop others using that name as a brand.
Why this matters
Your competitor can sell products under your company’s name if you haven’t registered it as a trademark in the right class. Worse, if someone already owns that trademark, they can apply to have your company name changed.
The right sequence
- Run a trademark search before you finalise the name.
- File the trademark at or before incorporation.
- Name the company as applicant once it exists, or assign the founder’s application to it.
A clean trademark search before incorporation costs less than a rebrand after Series A.